I walked into the kitchen, looking for something for breakfast. Eggs? No, too much work. Cereal? Maybe, if only... I checked the cabinet, hoping that Dad hadn’t found my Raisin Bran. Yes! I still had half a box!

I always had to hide my Raisin Bran when Dad was home. I’ve seen him eat three big bowls of it at a sitting, which didn’t leave much for me. I got the box down and put it on the table, then went to grab a bowl and some milk. I heard someone coming down the hall. If it was Dad, I knew my cereal would be gone quickly, so I had to do something, quickly.

I’m not sure if I honestly realized what I was doing, but when Dad walked in the door, the box of Raisin Bran was nowhere to be seen.

“Morning, Angel. Big day, today?” He went to the cabinet and looked for our favorite cereal. When he didn’t find any, he closed the cabinet and grabbed his briefcase.

“I’ll grab some coffee at work, I guess. Have a good morning, sweetheart.”

“You too, Dad.” I smiled, as sweetly as I could.

I waited a few moments for him to leave, and then the Raisin Brand reappeared on the table, much to my surprise. I heard clapping from behind me.

“Well done, Emily!” Mom applauded. I blushed a little, especially since I wasn’t really certain how I had made it vanish. I think I had a pretty good idea of what I had done, but I’d have to try it again to see for sure. I concentrated and my bowl and spoon vanished, just as I’d planned.

Mom hugged me proudly. “Very nice, sweetie. I am very pleased, and very proud of you.”

“Thanks, Mom. I’ve gotta admit, I was surprised at the first one, but I just had to save my cereal!” That got me giggling, which soon had us both laughing at my silliness.

“Save your what?” Grandma asked, which made us laugh even harder.

“Cereal, Grandma, it’s something silly, but I’ve just cast creatively for the first time!”

“That’s very good, Emily, very good, indeed. I’ll discuss this with Mrs. Andrews. Did you “clean up” after yourself?”

“Whoops! No Grandma, I didn’t, I’m sorry. I should know better.”

“Yes, you should, but I imagine it was very exciting, wasn’t it?” She smiled.

“Yes, but I guess I still need to be careful.” I concentrated, and tried to “pull” any magical energy back into myself. I had some success, but I’m not sure if I got it all. I really should have known better.

“Nicely done, dear. I could tell there wasn’t a large amount of excess energies-you were actually very efficient, and not wasteful.” Mom said. “You need to get to school, now. I think you still have plenty of time.”

“Okay, Mom.” I kissed both of them. “See ya later!”

I didn’t need to run, but I couldn’t help myself. I had to burn off a little of this bounciness I was feeling. It wasn’t really the first cast I had done, but I had done this all on my own, without any coaching, and with a specific goal in mind. Before this, anything I had done was either accidental or closely supervised. It was an important distinction, at least to me.

I saw Debbie as I ran around the corner, and quickly caught up to her. As soon as I caught my breath, I told her what I’d done.

“I had an interesting weekend as well. When your Grandmother sent me that amulet, it was like I could suddenly think again. I don’t know what really happened, or why the amulet helped me. I’m guessing that you have an idea what’s going on, but we had to go out of town. We just got back late last night, so spill, girl. What’s up?”

“You won’t believe this, Deb, but someone was messing with our emotions, although I don’t know why, but that's why we were so giggly and happy at school on /Friday.”

“I wondered why I couldn’t stop giggling! So what stopped it?”

“Mrs. Andrews’ house is protected by wards that are actually meant to keep magic in. Her protective wards blocked the effect, and as soon as I walked into her house, I felt anxious and angry. My mom said that when the influence was broken, our natural emotions sort of went in to overdrive, and in my case, I got very angry at everything.”

“Yeah, I was so sad I could barely walk home. My mom put me into bed, and I cried myself to sleep. When I woke up, Mom gave me the necklace and amulet, and as soon as I put it on, I felt so much better!”

“It felt great, but I was still pissed off. I don’t need anyone playing with my head. Heck, I don’t use it all that well myself!”

Debbie snickered at that and I smiled.“Anyway, I’m not happy about the idea of someone messing with my head, and I want to know who’s responsible. There has to be some way to figure out who would want to play with my head.”

“Well, in my journalism class, we learned that you need to ask five questions,” Debbie said. “Who, what, when, where and why. So, to start, Who would benefit from making you happy?”

“That’s hard. Anybody I care about might want to make me happy, including you, so that’s too general. What would the benefit be? I don’t know. When would someone benefit? Same answer, and that applies to where, as well. Why would someone benefit from making me happy? I think that’s the most important question. If we can figure out why, that would point us to who.”

Debbie looked at me thoughtfully. “We need to find a way to narrow things down so it wouldn’t be so hard to figure that out. I think the next thing we should do is to create a list of people around you, and then work on eliminating names that most likely wouldn’t benefit. That would leave a list of people that would become our main list of suspects.”

“Well, it’s a start, anyway. Are you busy after magic class? We could work on homework, and after that, make a preliminary list, and start narrowing things down.” I said, hopefully.

“I’ll call my mom at lunch.” Debbie smiled. “I need some help in my History homework, anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Cool. I’ll talk to my mom, too, and see what we’re doing for dinner.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She said.

“Yeah. I don’t know what else to do, but at least we’ll be doing something, I guess.”

“We have to start somewhere, Emily. We just might surprise ourselves.”

“I’ll see you at English class, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. Hey, Emily!”

“What?

“Smile!” She laughed and dove into the crowded hallway. I laughed at her, then began my own journey through the teeming masses.