Disclaimer:
~Big thanks to DC comics for making the fun characters, and to Lilith Langtree for making the universe to play in.
Author's Note: The sixth part of Zee's story. This chapter has a good number of rough spots for Zatanna to get through as she tries to return to her life. A very big thanks to my editor and beta readers for helping with the edits.

Chapter 6

The alarm clock woke me up the next morning. I slammed my hand on that blaring thing, groaned, and rolled out of bed. Waking up was never fun, especially when you had to go to school. My only comfort for waking up today was that I was getting a ride to school. Dad had to make sure that everything went over well at the school since Zane Zatara no longer existed.

I believe we were both hoping for a no-hassle concerning that. The easier it was to transition everything that Zane had over to Zatanna, the better. I didn’t want to spend most of the day sitting around in the office going through a mountain of red tape and bureaucratic run-around. I just hoped that I could go to class today and not have to worry about anything besides what was going on in class that day. If I had to worry about anything else, then it would have to be about learning some new magic. I was anxious to get back out there and learn some more.

After my shower, I decided to wear the purple hoodie with blue jeans, like Elissa recommended. I found some socks to go with it, and my purple with white sneakers. I brushed my long black hair out, and headed down for breakfast, with everything reloaded into my girl’s purple backpack.

I made some toast in the kitchen and saw Dad drinking his cup of coffee. He looked rested, which was a welcome relief. Also, he was wearing one of his suits. I thought that might be a little over the top, but if it helped the situation at school, I wasn't going to knock it. Over the past couple of days, he had looked worn out to me, as well as stressed. I think he was grateful that my fictitious existence has finally come to an end. I wasn’t feeling like that, a large chunk of me was still Zane. I don’t know when that chunk of me would fade away and I would be completely Zatanna, or if the Zatanna and Zane parts of me would merge together.

“Ready for school?” my dad asked, looking up from the newspaper that he was reading.

“Yep, I have everything that I would need, if I was still Zane,” I replied.

“I would grab everything, just in case,” he replied, looking skeptical.

“How come?”

“You never know if they have to give you a brand new schedule or if they would be nice enough to just leave you with the same schedule you had when you were Zane.”

“They should just roll it over,” I replied. “It makes sense.”

“Well, let's see how well I can talk them into providing you with the easiest road of getting back to school then, eh?”

We piled into the Prius a short time later, and I threw my bike into the trunk of the car. If everything worked out, then I would be pedaling back home tonight with Elissa. She went on ahead to school by herself and would meet me there, after we got done talking with the principal. And if worse came to worse, my dad would set up home-schooling for me. A part of me thought it might be better to do it that way, since I would have more time to practice my magic. I wasn't hoping for that, since I wouldn't spend time with Elissa, but it was something for me to think about.

“I hope it's only that easy, Dad.”

I was a little apprehensive about returning to school. The memories of the fake principal attack were still fresh in my mind. My dad reminded me as we pulled into the school parking lot that the principal was not the fake one. I could only nod at that as I felt my nervousness rise.

After Dad had parked the car, we walked through the school's corridors and down to the office. As we walked down the corridor, I felt like some kind of lab specimen with everyone looking at me. It felt awkward to be walking down this path that I took every day to go to a class and be treated like a total stranger. I wondered what my dad must be thinking. If anyone recognized him as my dad, they were definitely thinking about who I was.

We entered the office and the secretary told us to take a seat. She said the principal was currently in another early meeting and would be with us shortly. I put my bag down by my feet and looked at the clock nervously, anxious to get this meeting over and done with. We had arrived fifteen minutes before the first period warning bell, and I was hoping that I would be able to get to it.

A little while later, a man in a suit exited the building. He was very well dressed and had a friendly demeanor.

“I'd guess I'd better find my way to the classroom then, Mr. Wilson. I hope the students have much to gain from my teaching,” the man said, in an oily voice.

“I'm just glad I was able to find a history teacher on such short notice, Mr. Drache.”

Mr. Drache quickly left the office and into the corridor. I saw the principal's eyes follow him out before he turned to his secretary and said, “Where did you find him?”

“He was a Monster.com applicant, sir. Not many applied for the history teaching position, even in the current state of the economy.”

“Well, not many people are interested in the past, Irene. Is my next appointment here?”

“Yes. Mr. Zatara and his daughter are waiting for you now.”

“Daughter?” Mr. Wilson replied surprised, stepping out of his office.

“Yes, my daughter,” my father replied. “Can we speak to you in private, Mr. Wilson?” He gestured to the open office.

The principal nodded and motioned for us to follow him into his office. I grabbed my backpack quickly, and followed my father, who was already walking into the office. He quickly went behind his desk and offered the two chairs opposite of him to us. My father and I took those seats, while he himself sat down.

“If you don't mind me asking, Mr. Zatara, but where is your son, Zane?” he asked puzzled. “Does this have anything to do with his injury from the talent show?”

‘Wow,’ I thought. ‘Was he not aware of what happened after he left on Saturday?’

“As you may know,” my father began, “my son was injured during his winning magic act on Friday night and was attacked by someone posing as you Saturday morning.”

The principal nodded and replied as-a-matter-of-fact, “Yes.”

“I have reason to believe that someone intends to harm my child.”

“Can the police do anything to help protect him?” he replied.

“No, I’m afraid they cannot.”

“Then what do you expect us to do?”

“Simply make sure that my daughter is treated with respect and isn’t bullied by anyone,” he said in a low tone.

“Why? Is there something that I should know about her?”

My father sighed and began pacing around the room for a bit.

“Might as well tell him, Dad,” I commented.

“Yes, you’re right.”

He turned to the principal and said, “My daughter, Zatanna, was formerly my son, Zane. The awakening of her abilities, triggered by the magic show incident, is the reason that you see her as she is now.”

“Abilities?” the principal replied, confused. “Is she one of those, you know, metas? Those people that are supposed to be appearing all over now according to that Jade person?”

“No, my daughter is a magic user,” my father calmly replied.

“Magic? Are you serious? There’s no such thing as magic. You should know, since you are an illusionist.”

My father smirked, lifted his hands up for dramatic effect, and powerfully said, “Etativel eht reveilebnon.”

The principal began to slowly float into the air. At first, he didn’t notice anything unusual. That stopped when he realized that it looked like things were getting farther away from him. He yelled a little bit and then started to beg my father to let him down. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I watched his reaction to being lifted up into the air.

My father slowly lowered him back into his chair and said deeply, “Believe in magic now?”

Mr. Wilson took a few moments to regain his senses and straighten his tie. He then replied, “Well…, that…, that was definitely… interesting.”

“Indeed,” my father replied.

“So, if I understand this right,” the principal said, with some of his confidence returning, “Zatanna was Zane and now has magical abilities.”

“Yup,” I answered. “Believe me, I’m still getting used to it.”

“Okay, then how should we proceed with the student body?”

“What do you mean?” my father asked.

“What do we tell them? That Zane is a magic user and was turned into a girl?”

“Ah,” my father replied.

I smirked as I realized he hadn’t thought that far ahead. “How about we just say that I’m one of those new metas and leave the magic bit out?” I suggested.

“Hmmm…,” my father mused, rubbing his hand across his chin.

“Would you be okay with that?” Mr. Wilson asked. “You would probably be asked a lot of questions and under a lot of criticism. This whole meta business is still very new.”

“I think I can handle it,” I replied, sounding a little uncertain.

“Are you sure, Zee?” my dad asked, looking concerned.

“Yeah, I’ll have Elissa to back me up.”

“Alright…,” he said, not sounding too convinced.

“Well,” the principal interrupted. “It’s almost time for the warning bell to go off. I trust that you wish to keep the same schedule that you had as Zane, Zatanna?”

“Yes, please. If it’s not too much trouble.”

“Well, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I’ll work on changing everything over for you. If any of your early teachers give you too much trouble, have them call me, alright?”

I nodded and then said, “Thanks, Mr. Wilson.”

“No problem.”

“Zatanna, I took some steak out of the freezer for dinner tonight. I’m not sure if I’ll be home in time tonight.”

“Okay. I’ll make some baked potatoes to go with it then. You’ll lock my bike up next to Elissa’s, won’t you?”

“Yes, before I head into the city, it will be there.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

I gave him a quick hug, and then ran off to my first period class. As I rushed out he called out, “Call me at lunch time!”

“You got it, Dad!” I called back.

The warning bell started going off as soon as I exited the office. As I hurried down the hallway, I still felt the glaring eyes of the students watching me as I rushed past to class. I was hoping that things weren’t going to be too difficult with some of them.

-----------------------

I just barely made it in time to my Physics class. Although I didn’t enjoy the run to class, I still didn’t want the tardy going against me, especially when I had to say I was someone else. I walked over to my teacher, Mr. Woodson. Woodson was a middle-aged teacher, who loved the world of physics. He loved it so much, that he also ran the electronics class and tried to make his classroom double as a movie theater.

When I entered the classroom, he was sitting at his classroom computer getting the PowerPoint lecture on fluids ready to go. Several of my classmates were already in their seats gossiping about various things that had happened over the weekend. I managed to catch a few conversations talking about the talent show and of how I was stabbed in the leg. Although, they referred to me as Zane.

I approached the computer and Mr. Woodson took notice of my presence.

“Yes, miss? Who are you and how can I help you?” he asked, looking uncertain.

“I’m Zatanna Zatara,” I replied nervously. “Did Mr. Wilson tell you about me?”

“No. I haven't heard anything about a new student. Are you related to Zane Zatara? I know I have him in my class.”

Mr. Woodson scanned the room, and stated, “He doesn’t appear to be here yet. Is he home sick today?”

“Uhh...,” I started, suddenly feeling very embarrassed, “I was Zane.”

“Excuse me?” he said, with the people sitting in the front now focusing their attention on our conversation. I could feel my face turning red with embarrassment.

“I used to be Zane Zatara,” I said, still feeling embarrassed. “But, now I’m Zatanna Zatara.”

It felt like you could hear a pin drop in the classroom. Everyone had shut up forgetting their own conversations and was suddenly focusing completely on me. A few seconds later, the tardy bell rang out over the school, and it didn't even faze the people in the room.

“Uhm...,” Mr. Woodson stammered, apparently speechless.

I sighed, and then cautiously said, “Have you heard of Terra?”

The teacher shook his head no. “Has anyone else?” he asked.

One of the girls in the front row, who I knew was one of those smart go-getters, replied, “Yeah, she’s one of those new metahumans.”

“Metahumans?” the teacher replied, confused.

“Yeah,” she continued, “Jade, the Green Lantern, talked about them on the news that one day. They are supposed to be some kind of super human with powers.”

“What powers do you have?” shouted one of the jocks in the back.

I looked around for him in the crowd, but couldn't exactly find him. Most of the jocks were sitting in the back row and wearing their letterman jackets.

“I’m not exactly sure yet,” I answered. That was true enough, since I was still figuring out my magical abilities.

I heard a few chuckles in the back of the class. I could have sworn I heard someone say that they didn't believe my story.

“Have you met any other metas or Jade?” one of the nerdy looking boys asked anxiously.

“No, not yet.”

I heard a few more chuckles in the back of the class. Clearly, the jocks didn't believe my story at all. One of them asked, in a macho tone, “How come you look like a chick?”

“I don’t know, I think the government is working on that or something.”

“Maybe he wasn’t man enough to be a powerful meta and the powers had to settle for that,” one of the jerk's friends replied.

“Okay,” Mr. Woodson said forcefully, trying to calm the class down after that remark. “I’m sorry about that Zane...err...sorry. Zatanna. Would you please take your seat? I’ll count you as here even though your name hasn't been changed yet.”

“Mr. Wilson told me that he was working on getting everything rolled over to my new name.”

“Good to know,” he replied, with a nod.

After that exchange, I took my seat in the middle of the classroom, and pulled out my physics notebook. I could almost feel the stares from nearly everyone in the room follow my every move. It was a little unnerving to say the least, and it did sap some of my concentration on the subject material. I missed having Elissa nearby for support. We only had history together, so I was essentially on my own for the day.

The class did manage to get back on track to some degree. Every once and a while, I caught someone looking over at me. I felt like I was in a Petri dish under one big microscope that the entire school was looking through. Sometimes, I wished I could just turn invisible to escape from the many prying eyes.

Suddenly, the bell rang and I couldn't get out of there fast enough. As I made my out of the class and towards my locker, I felt a couple of paper balls hit the back of my neck. I looked behind me to see who threw them, but it was futile. The hallway was so crowded that I couldn't see who did it.

I thrust open my locker and stuffed my backpack into it. I banged my head against the open locker door.

“Don’t beat yourself up, Zee,” Elissa comforted, patting me on the back.

“I feel like I’m some kind of alien and everyone thinks I’m about to sprout a second head or something,” I replied, pulling out my Greek notebook.

Greek was my next class after the short break. I had decided to take it, since I didn't feel like taking Spanish, French, or one of the other languages being offered.
“Don't feel like that,” she said, trying her best to comfort me.

“Besides, you should be happy since you’re going to your language class next.”

“Why? They're just going to stare at me, waiting for me to do something.”

She leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Well, you’re going to be learning how to speak some magic words for later on.”

I smiled at that comment and replied, “I didn’t even realize that.”

She slapped me on the arm playfully and said in a happy tone, “We’d better get going to class. I’ll see you at lunch.”

I smiled as I carried my Greek notebook and textbook to class. I wanted to get there earlier to catch the teacher and explain the situation to her as quickly as possible, and to avoid the “Twenty Questions” session by the class.

Miss Spiros was sitting at her desk eating some yogurt when I walked in. She was quite the Greek beauty, having actually been from Greece. She told us that she came to America when she was a small girl, but her family insisted that she remember her Greek heritage, in a sort of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” kind of way. She even looked the part, with her brown eyes and long brown curly hair. She decorated her classroom with a variety of Greek themes and décor.

“Miss Spiros,” I said hesitantly, when I entered her classroom.

“Yes?” she said, looking up from the papers she was grading.

“I don’t know if the principal has talked to you yet, but I’m–,” I started.

“Ah, yes,” she interrupted. “You’re Zatanna now. Mr. Wilson talked to me before I came into class today.”

“He did?” I said, skeptically.

“Yes, he told me that you were a new meta and that you were once Zane. How does it feel being a girl now?” she fired off rapidly.

“Okay, I guess” I replied, surprised that she was taking this in stride.

“To me, it’s like those myths where one of the characters was transformed into something else. But, in this case, you are the one transformed.”

“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up…,” I answered.

“See, there is nothing to worry about,” she said.

The bell rang a few moments later, and I went and took my seat. The rest of the class soon followed, and a few of the students gave me the odd look and probably wondering who I was if the gossip spawned by my Physics class hadn’t spread to them yet.

The class for the most part went by rapidly. Studying Greek wasn’t that bad a class, especially with all the stories that Miss Spiros would add to color the lesson. She also sometimes went into the realm of the Greek myths, which I found really interesting. Today, she spoke of the Helmet of Hades and how he had used it during the Titanomachy to help his brother Zeus overthrow their father, Cronus. It was a good story to listen to and it helped to take my mind off of my worries about further harassment by my fellow schoolmates.

Lunchtime came soon enough and I met up with Elissa as she picked up lunch for the two of us. I didn’t have any lunch money today, since we had to rush out the door. Elissa, however, brought some extra cash with her to get me some lunch. She picked out a couple of slices of pepperoni pizza with an order of fries for us to split. It was a good lunch and the pizza was just the food I needed to help reorder my mind for the coming slog of my afternoon courses.

“Thanks for lunch, Elissa,” I said, after swallowing some of the fries.

“No problem, Zee,” she replied, taking a bit of her pizza.

Swallowing she added, “How was Greek?”

“It was okay. Miss Spiros was cool about the whole thing and I didn’t receive much ridicule or questions from the class. Which was a huge relief.”

Elissa nodded, “Yeah, I heard the stories they were saying about you in my last class.”

“What stories?” I asked hesitantly.

“Do you really want to know?” Elissa asked, after swallowing some more food.

“Yes, better to know what I might be facing in Drama next.”

“Well,” she started reluctantly, “they weren’t saying much. Almost not even worth mentioning…”

“Elissa, c’mon. You can tell me.”

“Well…,” she unwillingly continued, “they were saying things like how they knew you were a fag already. And how it was girly to do something like magic in the talent show. They were saying that you should display your powers if you were really a meta for proof that you are one, and other mean things like that.”

“Wow…,” I replied, feeling like someone punched me hard in the stomach.”

“There’s more,” Elissa continued. “Some people are accusing you of being a transsexual. Others are saying that you were a tomboy that had to come out of your shell, after being exposed at the talent show. They just go on and on, Zee.”

All those comments that Elissa had been relaying to me really hit hard. I feeling really bad and I beginning to feel the tears well up in my eyes as those hurtful statements struck home.

“I…, I…, I can’t…, believe they would…, say such…, things,” I sobbed.

I put my face in my hands and cried. I could feel Elissa rub my back and give me a hug as she tried to comfort me in my despair.

“It’s okay, Zee,” she said softly. “They’re just words, nothing more.”

I still cried for who knows how long. I was grateful that Elissa just sat there, keeping me company, and trying to cheer me up. It was nice that I had such a good friend in her. Sadly, the time she was using to try to cheer me back up was short-lived.

“Well, look who’s here,” a familiar voice said smugly. “It’s the dweeb and his friend.”

I looked up and saw Steve, that jock who started all of this mess in the first place. He had brought a few of his jock friends with him. They definitely were looking for a fight to pick.

“What do you want?” I answered, trying not to sound like I had been crying my eyes out.

“I just had to see it for myself. The dweeb who thinks he’s a girl.”

I felt my anger rise. It was one thing to hear the insults from a friend, but it was another to hear them to your face. I quickly rose to my feet and stood eye level to him.

“Oh, look,” he continued to mock, “he thinks he’s a fighter now.”

Elissa quickly stood up next to me.

“Do I look like a guy to you?”

“Yes,” he continued to mock, “one who’s dressed in drag!”
He and his friends laughed loudly, drawing the attention of other people nearby. I continued to fume while standing there. I didn’t want to use my magic in public, since I was concerned about that threat against me, and if that assassin from Saturday was anywhere nearby.

“Some man you are, tormenting women!” Elissa fired back.

“I didn’t say anything about you, but he’s no woman,” he rebutted, pointing a finger at me.

“How dare you!” she shouted. “How would you react if your girlfriend found out about you picking on women?”

“She could care less that I’m teasing that wannabe.”

I was furious. I wanted to curse him into oblivion for such horrendous remarks against me. I could feel my magical power building up inside of me, waiting anxiously to be released. I could faintly smell ozone in the air, as I felt the magical electricity begin to crackle at my fingertips.

“See! He’s proving my point that he’s a sissy, by not fighting back!” Steve shouted. “Only a girl wouldn’t fight back since they’re too afraid to break a nail.”

“Oh, really?” Elissa said, putting her hands on her hips and kind of looking like a mom scolding her child.

“Yeah,” Steve replied. “Girls just want to look pretty and impress a man; they’re not good for anything else.”

I glanced behind him and noticed that his cheerleader girlfriend was walking up behind him, and she wasn’t looking too happy. I could feel my anger subsiding a little and I even smirked as she walked up right behind him.

“What did you just say?” Christina said.

The color seemed to drain from his face. “Uhh…,” he replied, “Uhh…nothing. I was just saying that Zane looks like a girl now.”

He slowly turned around to face his girlfriend. “Oh,” she said maliciously, “really?”

A second later, she slapped him hard across the face. You could see the red mark of her hand clearly. I don’t know why, but I felt satisfaction at him getting what he deserved for being so chauvinistic.

“We’re done, Steve,” she said, assertively. “I don’t want a pig of man for a boyfriend.”

With that remark, she stormed off with her friends following.

“Err…,” he snarled. “You’ll pay for that Zane, mark my words, you’ll pay for that.”

He stormed off with his flunkies and yelled apologies as he tried to catch Christina.

“Well, that could have been worse,” Elissa said.

“Yeah, I could’ve done something to him that would make him regret those words,” I replied.

“Don’t let those words get to you. There’s nothing wrong with being a girl.”

“I know. I just wish I wasn’t under the microscope right now.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Elissa added reassuringly. “This will probably blow over when more metas show up on the news, or someone does something embarrassing.”

I nodded and grabbed my bag, the bell rang soon afterwards.

“Well, I’m off to Drama. I’ll see you at the bike rack after school’s out, okay?”

“Yup. I’ll see you there. Your bike is there, I saw him rack it up for you.”

“Nice. I’ll see you then,” I replied.

I walked into my Drama class a few minutes later. Mr. Ford, the drama teacher, simply nodded at my arrival. He seemed to be laid back about it, and as if it didn’t bother him one bit. I silently thanked him for that.

The rest of the class soon followed. They were gossiping about me, as I had already figured. But, they were also talking about the sound thrashing that Christina gave Steve. I was glad that I wasn’t the only class gossip going around.

The teacher just wanted us to do some simple exercises, by playing several of the games from the show “Whose Line is it Anyway?.” They were a lot of fun to play, and people didn’t seem to rag on me as much when we were doing them. The class went by quickly, and I did manage to have a little bit of fun.

Study Hall soon followed after Drama. It gave me the time to catch up on my homework, before I went home. The study hall wasn’t that bad a class. It was only for about an hour. I managed to get caught up on Physics, and was just getting to Greek when it was time to go to my last class, Programming.

The school schedule was set up so that we had our last class every day of the week. Wednesdays were the days we had all of our classes, except for Study Hall. The programming class went by quickly, and no one seemed to bug me about the whole gender issue, but more about what powers did I have. That made sense, since the class was mostly a bunch of geeks who loved comic books and fantasy games. To them, I was some of their fantasies fulfilled. I was just grateful that they didn’t draw attention or denigrate me like some of the other people I ran into today.

----------------------------

Elissa and I rode home that afternoon. We were both pleased that my bike riding skills didn’t diminish during my transformation. Although, I admit that it deal feel differently than when I was a guy. We made the trip back in the usual amount of time. Elissa told me that her parents wanted her home tonight, due to all the time she was spending at my place.

I told her that was fine and we could work on the history project over Skype. I was also pretty sure that my dad wanted me to work on my magic skills some more, too. I think she also knew that, given that we weren’t sure if Steve would carry out his threat against me.

I pulled my bike into the garage when I got home and noticed that my dad wasn’t there. Now I was really starting to wonder what he was up to. He didn’t leave this much when he was on the road performing his magic act.

I went into the kitchen and proceeded to get dinner ready for when he did come home. I pulled my homework out onto the kitchen table, so I can do it while I cooked. Dad had taken some steak out for dinner tonight, so I decided to make some tacos out of it. We had the tortilla shells for the quick pinch, plenty of cheese, lettuce, and tomato to use. Plus, tacos were one of my favorite foods.

Time passed quickly and soon the meal was done. I had nearly wrapped up all of my homework, save the history project. Elissa and I would be working on that after dinner, when I could get on my computer. Just as I was setting everything out on the kitchen table for the meal, my dad came pulling up the driveway in the Prius.

“About time,” I said, finishing setting dinner up.

He walked in the room and said, “Sorry I’m late. The meeting with the detectives took longer than I had expected.”

“Which detectives? And why would they need your help?”

“The Bay Area Task Force is asking for my help in solving why a cargo ship was stolen out of its berth in Sausalito and ended up in Alameda for no reason. They are asking for places where the thieves may have come in and gone out, since I am an escape artist.”

“I thought they would call on you if they thought there was something magical involved in it.”

“No, the only people who know that I have magical abilities are the Sentinels of Magic.”

“Okay,” I replied. “Well, dinner is done.”

“Nice, I’m starved.”

We proceeded to dig into the meal, and I talked about my day. Dad wasn’t too happy to hear how I was bullied by so many people, especially Steve. It also explained how I wasn't able to call him at lunch today. Although, he was happy that I showed some restraint and didn’t use my magic on him.

“But, what if he tries to make good on his threat?” I asked, concerned.

“Then, we will deal with it. I don’t want you to get into any fight that you can’t get out of,” he answered adamantly.

“Alright. What magic am I practicing tonight?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

“I want you to practice your conjuring abilities of the four classical elements. You’ve shown that you can manipulate them, if they are already around. Now, let’s see if you can generate them.”

“Okay,” I replied, trying not to sound too eager. “Where am I going to practice?”

“We will practice inside in the magical hallways. You will need to set up the spell circle as well.”

“Me?” I asked, surprised. “But, I’ve never done that before.”

“It’s not too hard. You should be able to do it. I’ve left the instructions on how to set one up in the practice room. I’ll take care of the dishes.”

I nodded and began to head for my dad’s study. Before I could get out of earshot, he yelled, “It’s upstairs! I moved it for easier access.”

“Which door then?” I fired back.

“It’s in the attic!”

‘The attic?’ I thought. ‘Why did he move it up there?’

I decided to shrug it off and headed for the attic. I definitely thought that it made things a bit easier, since I wouldn’t have to navigate the magical labyrinth that my dad had branching off of his study.

After getting up to the second floor, I found the trapdoor that led to the attic. The last time I was up there, my dad and I were looking through some of his old things to figure out which could be donated to charity. The attic was dusty and full of a bunch of cardboard boxes filled with things from my dad’s early days as a magician.

When I made my way up into the attic, I saw that my dad had done some redecorating in here. The boxes had been moved out of here and into another room. The windows were clean and I could see the moonlight shining through. There was also a small, empty, bookcase up here, which appeared to be waiting for some books to fill its shelves.

“Well, he’s been doing some redecorating in here,” I commented.

I found the small table with the spell circle instructions laid out upon it. I looked it over and thought, ‘It sounds simple enough.’

I proceeded to follow the spell circle directions to the best of my ability. It involved saying strange words and tracing a circular figure out on the ground. I focused all of my concentration on getting the circle right, since I didn’t want to set the house on fire or blow some of the walls out. After I finished, I fell onto the couch feeling a little tired from pouring a great deal of concentration into the circle.

Sometime later, my dad came up and shook me. He caught me dozing and said, “Not time for sleep, Zee.”

I groaned, “Fine….”

I stood up and said, “Well, how did I do?”

He replied, “It looks good. Are you ready to begin?”

I groaned some more, “Do I have to? I feel tired from making that.”

He looked at me skeptically. “From making a spell circle?”

I nodded. For some reason, it did take a lot out of me to make that. I sat on the attic couch and watched as my dad inspected the glowing runic circle on the floor for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing. That’s just it. There’s nothing wrong with it, and it’s powerful.”

“Okay…, how did I do that?”

“I don’t know,” he said, surprised.

“Why don’t you know?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe you had better go to bed now. If this is as powerful as I think it is, then you used a lot of energy to make it and make sure nothing got out of its influence.”

“How would I know how to do that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Okay,” I yawned, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I went back downstairs to my room and got ready for bed. Something was going on with my magic. First, I overloaded my dad’s spell circle when I was first trying my magical abilities out, and now I make an advanced spell circle with no idea of how I did it.

‘Not to mention that he is disappearing more often than he used to,’ I thought to myself as I set my alarm clock for tomorrow morning.
There definitely was something strange going on, but at the moment, I was too tired to think any more about it. Before I drifted off, I hoped that tomorrow would be a nicer day than today was at school.