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: Here's my stab at the Comics Retconn universe. A very big thanks to Padfoot for helping with the edits.

The audience broke into a loud round of applause, as the Great Zatara astounded them with his latest illusion. The trick he had just completed consisted of moving from one side of the stage to the other side, without the audience seeing his movements. However, if everyone knew how it was done, there really was no mystery to how he had performed the trick, and it would seem boring. Yet, backstage I still applauded with the rest of the audience, proud of how masterfully the illusion had been performed.

John Zatara, the illusionist who had just finished performing on stage, took his final bow as the curtain came down on the stage. This performance had been for charity, and he had been amazed at how big the turnout had been and how good the audience was. Once the curtain was down, he sighed deeply, I could see the worry in his eyes and on his face. He tried to hide it so I could not see, but I saw him wipe it off and then walked over to me, his son of nearly sixteen years.

“Did you enjoy the show, Zane?” he asked, as he came up to me and looked at me nicely.

“As always,” I replied, “but, it’s not as fun now, since I know how some of the tricks are done.”

Dad laughed and smiling as he said, “I suppose not. But, there are still many things that I still haven’t even taught you yet.”

“And when will you be teaching me these things? Huh?” I asked, wondering and hoping to myself when I would be able to learn some of the secrets of my father’s tricks.

“On your sixteenth birthday, I promise,” he replied, nicely to me with a smile.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” I said, with a big smile forming on my face. “Especially considering that it’s only a few days away and then I will be able to know tons of new and amazing things.”

Dad laughed at my comment, and then we began to pack up all the magic tricks and the parts to them. All the things he had used in his act had to be moved out of the way for the concert that would be performed in a couple of nights on this same stage. It was some girl band that was performing. My friend, Elissa, wanted to go and see, and I would be going with her. I thought she would be one of those girls that would go for a boy band, but from what she told me about this one girl group, they were supposed to be really good. I didn’t care too much about listening to the music, but I did humor her when she started talking about it nonstop and even tried to play me some of their music.

I’ve known Elissa since we were in kindergarten together. We hit off on that first day we had met, and have been best friends ever since. We rarely left each other’s sides and liked to spend tons of time together. Her parents and my father have always thought it was unusual for a girl and a boy to be best friends and not like each other more than that. However, they let the matter drop and just went with it, thinking that things would work out to be anything that it should be and just to see how things go. After cleaning up for a couple of hours, we moved the simple tricks into in the neighboring storage facility, where they were usually stored in.

Dad then turned to me after we put the last box in the storage shed, “All right, that’s good for the night. The moving crew will put the big stuff away in the morning, so it looks like we’re all done here, squirt. What do you say we go and get a bite to eat before we go home?”

I inwardly cringed whenever he called me that name, since I was still just under five feet tall. However, I simply smiled at him and replied, “Can we go get a good burger, Dad? I really want one now.”

“Sure, we can swing by Chili’s on our way home. They have a Two for Twenty deal that’s going on right now.”

“Sounds good to me, since their burgers are super good.”

The two of us climbed into our small Prius and began our long drive home; he wanted a small family car for the two of us and it was a perfect choice. Dad took the surface streets to the 101, and soon we were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, on our way to our home near Sausalito and out of the big city. The city and the bay looked absolutely beautiful at night, as I gazed out at the big city behind us, with the moonlight shining down upon it, I couldn’t help but wonder at how amazing it looked. After we had crossed the bridge and out of the city, Dad went into the nearest Chili’s to grab our dinners. We were both tired and did not feel like eating out tonight. He instead ordered our food to go, so we could enjoy it at home tonight.

We drove through the streets of Sausalito before we neared the edge of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Our estate was located on the edge of the forest, near a small stream bank that flowed down and into San Francisco Bay. The house was obscured from the street, since our driveway was long and went very close to the edge of the woods and was also pretty far from the main road. I would have to say that our house was more like a manor than anything else; it even had a manor-like name, Shadowcrest. However, for all the stuff we had inside of the manor, it did feel a little empty inside. I figured I was probably because it was only just my dad and me living there, and it was hard to not feel lonely living in a place this big.

My dad never really even talked about my mom a lot, and even seemed to instead want to hide anything and everything about her away from me. From what he had told me though, she was a beautiful woman, who loved him and me very much. The two of them would go on adventures together, travelling around the world and having what fun they could with the lives that they led. He told me that it was something that he never would have done if it hadn’t been for mom. He did enjoy doing the things they had done together and was very happy just being with her and doing anything he could with her. They eventually got married, and a year later I was born. I had found out, that a few months after I was born, my dad told me that my mom had to go home for some kind of emergency. He never said what it was about and I finally stopped asking, but he did tell me that it was important to know that she would always love me and wishes she could be with us if it were possible.

We pulled up to the garage a few minutes later and he parked inside next to the BMW. The Prius we were driving was going to be my car when I turned sixteen in a few days. Dad said and thought that I deserved a car of my own when I turned sixteen, so he went out and bought it without my knowledge. Dad wanted to drive the car before my birthday, in case he ever wanted to get a hybrid for himself, and figured that he could test it and see if he liked it better than his or the same as his BMW.

We took our food and went to the living room, and my father switched on the late night news as we ate our dinner. I went to go and get us a couple of plates and some napkins from the dining room. As I reentered the room, I was only able to catch a bit of the developments that were happening in southern Asia. The anchor then passed it over to Stephanie Shapero as I sat down to watch and eat. I enjoyed watching Stephanie’s stories, since she was the news correspondent that always talked about the discovery of the metahuman gene.

She had been around for about a month now, ever since Jade had first appeared and talked to the world about the emergence of the metahumans in the population that would soon start to begin. Lately, Stephanie had been talking of the exploits of a metahuman who called herself Terra. From what she was saying, Terra was just a teenager going to a party when her metagene activated. She also was very instrumental in stopping a volcano from erupting violently in Japan, which could have hurt and killed many people.

I thought the whole notion of there being metahumans was pretty cool. I wouldn’t mind being one of them, but I wouldn’t want to hide my new abilities from my dad or Elissa. I cared for them too much to leave them in the dark about anything like that. Metahumans have to hide their powers and I knew that I couldn’t do that to my friend or my father. Even though I wanted to be one, it would be better for me to stay normal.

My dad turned to me and said, “Alright Zane, time to go get cleaned up and go to bed. You have school in the morning.”

He then pointed at me and added, “I don’t want to hear you’ve been sleeping in class again because you haven’t gotten enough rest.”

I groaned and said, “Alright.”

My bedroom was on the second floor of the house, with my bathroom right next to it. My dad’s room was down the hallway from mine. On the first floor were the living room, kitchen, dining room, and my father’s study and library. He never let me into his personal library, and he only let me into his study whenever he was in it. He just told me that when I was ready, he would show me what was inside in his library and that I would spend a good amount of time learning things and bonding with him.

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

After waking up the next day, I went about my daily routine as I got ready for school: a warm shower, a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast and then a quick check of all my school stuff, making sure I had everything that I would need for the day. I rummaged through my closet trying to figure out which shirt that I wanted to wear with my blue jeans. I was stuck trying to decide between a blue polo shirt and a black t-shirt. I thought for a bit, and decided on the polo shirt, since there was a good chance of rain in the forecast. I looked in the mirror in the bathroom and saw those sapphire blue eyes that I inherited from my mother. I began to take a comb through my raven-like black hair, which I had inherited from my mother. My hair was quite long and at this moment was nearly shoulder length, I however, secretly wanted it longer. I knew that I would probably end up being teased for that, but I didn’t care. I ended up pulling it back into a small ponytail to have my hairstyle appear somewhat masculine in appearance and to try and avoid some of the inevitable teasing that I would face.

After I finished dressing and taking care of my hair, I double-checked and made sure that I still had the necklace around my neck. It was very important to me, because my father had told me that it had been a gift from my mother before everything happened. She wanted me to have it, this was according to my father. This happened before she went home to deal with that emergency. For some reason like something out of a very distant memory, I knew that it was important for me to have this part of my mother with me. As it was almost time for me to go, I headed for my father’s study to tell him goodbye for the day. However, he was not there when I went in after knocking on the door.

It was unusual for my dad to not be in his study at this time of day. It was also very strange that he gone into San Francisco before eight in the morning. He would often be in his study working on something; I figured that it was most likely his next show even though he was retired and shouldn’t be working so hard, when I went to school in the morning. His study contained a couple of bookshelves that were stocked with many books, a few plants, and his old antique desk. I shrugged off the feeling that something was wrong for now, thinking that he must have had a good reason to leave early, and that he would tell me when I saw him afterschool today. I quickly checked to make sure all the doors were locked in the house and then grabbed my bike out of the garage and headed for school, not wanting to be late as I was already cutting it to close for comfort.

Along the way to school, I met up with Elissa. Today she wore a dark leather jacket, a cute, black t-shirt that had the words: “Some mistakes are too fun to only make twice” written upon it, a pair of nice fitting blue jeans, and her white sneakers. The bottom of her fiery red hair stood out against the backdrop of the forest near my home. I could only see the bottom of it since the rest of it was currently being protected underneath her helmet.

She smiled at me and said, “What kept you, Zee? You should’ve been here five minutes ago.”

Zee is the nickname that Elissa has so kindly bestowed upon me. It wasn’t very clever, since it was just my first initial made long, but I was cool with it. She was my best friend and I was okay with her giving me a not-so-clever nickname.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I replied. “Just that my dad wasn’t around when I left and it surprised me a bit.”
Elissa looked a little concerned, since she was also aware of my father’s habits, most notably from him offering us a ride when the weather wouldn’t allow for us to ride our bikes to school. She also tended to live with us when she felt like it as well, her parents not minding it.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “He probably just had to go into the city early today and forgot to tell me. By the way, looking good today.”

“Don’t look half bad yourself,” she replied, before quickly changing the subject to baseball.

Elissa and I loved to watch the San Francisco Giants play. We agreed with Duane Kuiper when he called this year’s team: “Torture.” It was a good kind of torture in our opinion, considering that they had just recently won the World Series, and the team and myself had been celebrating since. As we were talking about it for quite a while, the rest of the bicycle ride was quickly going by. We soon pulled into Sausalito High School and locked our bikes up at the bike rack on campus. We barely made it to school with just about five minutes to spare before the first period class would be starting; Elissa had gym, and I had pre-calculus. I enjoyed my math class, as well as my science and history classes that I have throughout the day. The other classes weren’t as much fun in my opinion.

The day went on as any other day at school seems to go, and I didn’t think anymore about why my father had left early. Soon, it was time for my US History class. Elissa and I thankfully shared that class together, which was just before lunch. Our teacher, Miss Carlson, was lecturing on the American Revolutionary War today. As she lectured, I imagined what it must have been like in those days, trying to fight for the life of a newborn nation, with hopes of it becoming a great nation one day or maybe they just wanted it to become self-sufficient and I couldn’t help but wonder what they were thinking at that time. It was an interesting daydream, as I was fighting along side the Continental Marines in one of those historic battles against the British.

However, I quickly snapped out of my daydream when the bell rang. I realized that I had been daydreaming throughout class and had not taken any notes. I looked around to see if anyone else had noticed, the look on Elissa’s face told me that I was lucky and she had been the only one to notice. We both packed up our things and, after copying down our homework, we headed off to lunch. I was just happy to eat and spend time with Elissa, and not be in class for a bit. She was looking at me a little bit funny for some reason and I said, “Alright, out with it.”

“Daydreaming, Zee?” she asked me playfully with a smile.

“Huh?” I replied, trying not to let on that she was right in her assumption of me daydreaming in class.

“Oh, c’mon. I know that glazed look from you anywhere. You were off in another world. Demons? Dragons? Wizards? Or magic?”

“The American Revolution,” I replied, in a low tone knowing that she would think it is odd.

“That’s a new one,” she replied, surprised at my reply and how it was odd even for me.

“What?” I said defensively, “sometimes, I just get into history. That’s all.”

“Uh-huh,” she replied, not sounding convinced by my defensive tone.

I just shook my head and we continued to the food court. Elissa usually buys her lunch from the school’s dining services. She usually gets a slice of pizza, but you never know with her; sometimes she like to surprise me and will instead order a hamburger with French fries just to trick me. Oddly, I don’t mind her doing that kind of stuff. It made her fun and good to be around. I, on the other hand, always make my lunch and bring it with me to school every day. Today, happily, is a salami sandwich with some crackers.

After she grabbed her lunch and I waited for her, we headed for the Overlook. The Overlook was an area on campus that was known for its awesome view of San Francisco Bay. The view it provided was magnificent as it stretched from one side of the East Bay and continued all the way around to the Golden Gate Bridge. Today, there was a good amount of sunshine, so we could see everything. However, there was a storm coming in on the horizon, and it looked to be a pretty mean one coming in. As we gazed out towards the Pacific, we could see the stormy and ominous dark clouds make their way towards the shore.

We both knew that we may not end up dodging the storm on our bike ride home, but it was a chance that we were both willing and wanted to take. As we ate our lunch, we talked about how some of our classes were being really difficult and a lot harder than they needed to be; she was having trouble in English, while my problems always seemed to be in gym class.

I didn’t just have problems in my gym class; I absolutely hated the class and wished that I didn’t have to take it. It didn’t have to do anything with physical exercise; I had no issues with that, since I rode my bike to school when the weather was nice. I also tended to bike ride a lot around where I lived to get exercise, I tend to be in pretty good shape because of this. The only issue I had was changing in front of the other guys in the locker room, since I was so short and easily the target of being picked on. I was wondering when puberty would finally hit for me, considering that I was almost sixteen years old and still hadn’t decided to come. To try to avoid trouble, I would be the first or the last in the locker room, so I could avoid the embarrassment of changing in front of the others and having to be called ‘short’ names or any other joke they decided to throw at me. I had no problem with being around other guys, just not in a locker room. Elissa thought I was being silly, but she did care about how I felt about this and would listen to me when I talked about it.

The school bell rang out a few minutes later, and we trudged ourselves to our afternoon classes. Elissa was off to biology, while I was off to English. I didn’t completely enjoy my English class. Writing essays about trying to extract hidden meanings out of literature was just boring and mundane to me and I don’t see the point in doing that or why it was completely needed. However, reading the book for pure enjoyment was another story altogether. I love to just read books, especially fantasy novels. For some reason, those adventures that involved magic always seemed to captivate me and my imagination in amazing ways. It seemed hard for most things to capture my mind that well. If that weren’t enough, I also greatly enjoy playing fantasy-style games on my computer at home and would spend hours on them. Elissa would play with me online a lot too, but she thought I seemed to get into the game a little too much and too often, as she told me many times. She also made a little fun at how I always ended up making female characters.

Class ended after we finished up, talking about our latest book that we were reading for class. I thought that Brave New World book is a good read, but I could deal without all our discussions about utopia and how humanity wasn’t meant for that. I felt like we should just try to enjoy the book and not analyze it to death. However, I did find the talk we had about selective breeding to be pretty interesting. I also enjoyed science fiction as much as fantasy, considering that the two areas often overlap and were put together.

After English, I made my usual mad dash to the locker room, so I could get changed quickly and I was thankful again for my luck beating everyone else there. I hated changing clothes in front of the other guys. Luckily, I was the first and only person in the whole locker room. I breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly changed into my gym clothes and left the locker room just as all the early people were coming in.

I was already on my way to the gym floor by the time the other guys were filtering into the locker room from their other classes, I just sat there and waited for the class to start. Gym was not that bad today; we ended up playing basketball, and one of my favorite games, Knockout. The gym class passed quickly as we played the game, and I did alright by not getting knocked out until there were about ten of us left in line. I managed to hold off getting changed back into my normal clothes until the very end, while everyone else was heading to their next class. After reporting out of the class and the locker room, I headed to my final class of the day, Computer Programming.

As I walked out of the breezeway and towards the computer classrooms, I could see that the storm was getting ever more dangerously closer. I was hoping that it wouldn’t arrive in time for the bike ride home. I enjoyed bike riding home with Elissa and did not want to lose spending that time with her or get soaking wet from the storm. The programming class went by quickly; it happened to be a fun and challenging class. I enjoyed it a lot, as it allowed me to create programs that have the possible potential to make my life, and maybe others, a little bit easier.

My dad didn’t approve of the class; he however understood the importance of technology in this day and age, which is why he bought a computer for my room, along with the internet. This made things a lot easier for my programming class and my internet gaming habits that I had developed.

He remains adamant about not using a computer himself though, since he believes that there is more value in the written word than in a computer. He tends to not use them whenever he can avoid it. He did have a cell phone; he dislikes it and hates to use it, which he only uses when he’s talking with his agent. He uses it mostly to plan special shows in San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, London, Paris, Istanbul, and many other amazing places around the world. However, that and driving a car is the limit of his skill with modern technology. I never understood why my father didn’t like using it, but I knew that my father is thankful that the phone was the only area of technology that he had to be around.

The final bell rang as I finished up the day’s assignment. I grabbed my stuff and headed back to the bike rack to wait for Elissa, so that we can head out and go home. She should just be getting out of her art class, which happens to be completely on the other side of the campus. Due to this, I knew she would take some time to get here and she would be a long in a few minutes. Elissa is really into her art class, but she also enjoyed computers, not as much I do, but I liked seeing her happy with her classes. She’s very excited about taking the new graphic art class that’s being offered next year, since it is a mix between art and computers. As I finished removing the lock on my bike, I looked up and saw Elissa emerge from the school and coming to the bike area.

“What kept you?” I asked, smiling and knowing full well what kept her.

“Just storing my project for the weekend. It’s looking really good and I don’t want anyone to mess with it.”

“Why you being so overprotective of it?” I asked, knowing she cared a lot about her art projects and was extremely defensive of them. I couldn’t help but wonder if she would be so excited about me.

“It’s important to me,” she told me, smiling and starting to free her bike from the rack.

She saw me looking skeptical, and then added, “Don’t worry. I’ll let you see it when I’m all done.”

“Alright,” I replied, thinking that would most likely never be able to happen.

She giggled when she saw my look as I spoke, the look clearly showed that I didn’t believe her.

“I mean it this time, Zee.”

“Uh-huh,” I said, still not convinced, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

She laughed at what I had just said as she managed to finally free her bicycle from the evil clutches of the rack. Soon, the two of us started on our way over to my house to work on our homework together. Along our trip, as we made our way through the streets of Sausalito and near the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, we could feel the winds starting to pick up and begin to grow ever more intense. As we kept biking, it seemed the sky was ready to have rain fall on us at any moment. The sky was now completely cloudy and also getting darker by the second, we could tell that we didn’t have much time left before the rain came. The moment that we rode into my driveway, we started to hear far off thunder and the rain started to begin to steadily fall.

“Whew,” Elissa said, “that was a close one.”

We quickly put our bikes underneath the overhang on the front porch, so that they could at least be out of the rain. I fumbled in my jean pockets for my keys for a few seconds and after finding them, I quickly opened the door to the house and walked in. We dropped our book bags by the inside of the front door and began removing our coats when we suddenly heard a downpour strike, which could be seen and heard on the doors and windows.

Elissa commented, as she finished taking her coat off, “At least we made it back before that hit.”
I sighed at her as she said that and then said, “C’mon, let’s get working on our homework before tonight’s show.”

She nodded at this and picked up and then quickly tossed my backpack to me before grabbing hers again. The two of us went into the living room to get comfortable enough to work and pulled out our binders and textbooks; and we started to work on our homework for US History. Our assignment was definitely interesting, that is to say the least. It was quite an odd project and neither of us knew what to do. The teacher had assigned the class to come up with a way of presenting the American Revolution in an interesting and different way, so that we could have fun while learning and researching for the assignment. Elissa and I sat on the couch as we tried to brainstorm ideas for a while, but we just wound up becoming extremely frustrated and quickly annoyed with what we should do.

After about an hour or two of trying to wrap our heads around this odd assignment and also trying to figure out a project idea, Elissa finally sighed, laid down on the couch, and said, “At least we have a week to do this.”

I laughed at her ability to not worry and wait until the very last minute, and said, “Yeah, but I don’t want to wait until the very last minute like we did last time. Remember all the stress and problems that caused?”

“I don’t think that’ll happen,” she retorted.

We continued to trade ideas back and forth with each other for a while longer, and as we did this, we could hear the storm thrashing about outside. The storm was oddly comforting, and seemed to help us think of some ideas. Some of our ideas included making a game similar to Risk for the project. Another idea that we thought of played with the notion of “What could have been?,” a game or idea that brought into account of what would have happened if the colonists successfully invaded Canada, or the French never entered the war on the side of the Americans. It gave us the ability to work out what might have changed and been different for the country and history.

A loud thunderclap echoed through the house and a bright flash shone through the windows. Elissa and I both jumped from our seats when we heard the thunder. I heard the front door open and shut itself and I quickly climbed off the couch to see if my dad was there. Turning the corner, I saw he was indeed there and holding a couple of pizza boxes with him.

“Need a hand?” I asked as I showed myself to him and not just poke my head out.

He looked at me and smiled. “Yes, would you put these in the kitchen?”

I took the pizzas from him and took them to the kitchen. I grabbed a few plates from out of the cupboard, along with a few napkins. Elissa and my father shortly came about a minute or so later.

My dad looked a bit wet from the storm, and he sighed as he entered. From my point of view, he looked a little distressed.

“Everything okay?” I asked trying to read him.

He looked up from the pepperoni pizza the he happened to be taking a slice from and replied, “Yeah, I had a busy day, today.”

“Okay, did you get everything that Elissa and I are going to need for tonight?”

He nodded, as we ate the pizza. “I’m proud that you decided to do that for the talent show tonight.”

“I never thought that doing a single magic trick would be so much work, Mr. Zatara,” Elissa added.

“It is a lot of work, but so are a lot of things in life,” my dad replied.

She nodded as she understood and then she grabbed another slice of pepperoni to eat, while I pulled three Pepsis out of the refrigerator for us to drink.

Elissa, after popping the top of her soda can, said, “So, are we going to be in costume?”

I nodded, and replied, “Yup, yours is on your bed.”

Elissa often stayed over with us, and used one of the spare bedrooms. We pretty much made that her room.
“Okay, but if you put me in a strip of fabric, I’m going to kick your butt,” she replied, as she was eating her food.

I had a moment of a guilty conscience when she said that, but I hoped that she would forgive me for what I picked out for her to wear at the talent show tonight.

After dinner, the two of us got ready for the talent show at the school. The show was a little contest that the student council was putting on and the winner would receive a small cash prize. Elissa and I decided to do a magic show, since I knew a few of my father’s tricks. I reluctantly agreed to Elissa making me do this, since I don’t think that I’m good enough to perform. However, she enlisted the aid of my dad, and they managed to force me to admit that I had some talent at it and so we were doing a magic show.

The both of us had decided that we wanted to dress the part of magician and assistant, so I went to an old costume shop, where they had the costumes for such an act. They had better magician costumes than assistants, so I tried to pick something out that Elissa wouldn’t have too much of a gripe about, I hoped. However, as I slipped the belt through the slots on the pair of slacks that I was wearing as a part of my magician’s outfit, I hear a series of pounding knocks on my door.

“Zane!” I heard Elissa scream.

I face palmed myself, groaned, and reluctantly opened the door. As I did this I thought, ‘I might as well get this over with.’

As I finishing opening the door, I saw Elissa in the outfit that I had picked out for her, as a magician’s assistant. She wore a green leotard with sparkles and a pair of dark pantyhose over her legs. She was holding the two-inch green heels in her hand, while she had the other on her hip.

“Care to explain this?” Elissa replied, fuming.

“I thought the green would go well with your hair,” I replied, trying to defuse the situation and make her happy.

She grumbled, “I look like a freaking Vegas showgirl!”

“I’m sorry, Elissa,” I said, as I buttoned up the white dress shirt. “I just wanted something that would fit the act, and distract the audience for me.”

Elissa still looked unconvinced after I said that, so I continued, “I’m sorry, I guess I just got a little carried away with getting everything perfect for our first stage performance. At least it’s just a little bit shinier than a swimsuit.”

Elissa sighed and then said, “Fine, I’ll wear it. But, payback’s gonna be a bitch.”

I threw the magician’s jacket over my arm, and then we went downstairs to climb into the car to travel back to school for the talent show. I think I had settled Elissa’s nerves, but I wasn’t too sure about my own. I did notice she played with her outfit a little too much and it made me know I wasn’t the only nervous one.

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The crowd in the auditorium applauded as a young man just completed his ventriloquist act. I was watching from backstage, my stomach was full of nerves and butterflies. I kept looking at a nearby mirror and was fidgeting with my costume. In the distance, I could hear Mozart being played on a violin. I knew that I would be up next, as I was part of the final show, since I was performing five different magic tricks.

After I had finished that last round of fidgeting with my costume, I began to pace around the backstage area. I could see my dad talking with the stagehands, as he was making sure that they didn’t damage the stuff that I would be using in my act. I saw Elissa walking over to me, I couldn’t help bu think that she looks pretty good in the magician’s assistant costume that I picked out for her, part of me wished I had chosen something bit more revealing, even though she would have never wore it. I noticed that she was a lot taller than me, as she walked in those heels. She was normally about 5’ 4”, six inches taller than me. With those heels, she’s now towering over me now.

“Are you doing okay, Zee?” she asked, seeing that I was a nervous wreck.

“I’m nervous as hell, Elissa. What if I screw up on some part of the trick and it doesn’t work? What if I’m laughed off the stage? What if–”

She put her finger up to my mouth and I became quiet. She then said, “Relax, Zee. We’ve practiced this act for months, you should be able to do this in your sleep now.”

“But–,” I started again

“But, nothing,” she cut me off. “If anyone should be nervous, it should be me. Look at what I’m wearing, with all the blushing I’m going to look like a tomato.”

I sighed, and said, “A cute one though.”

She playfully smacked me and laughed, “We can do this. Everthing will be okay.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

We heard a round of applause just after the Mozart piece was completed. I took another deep breath, and approached the place where I would be heading on stage from. I saw the violinist leave stage right and the principal of my school, John Wilson, approach the microphone.

He said to the crowd, “That was a wonderful piece of music played for us, and now it’s time to watch our final act of the school’s talent show. ‘A Touch of Magic’ will be performed by Zane Zatara and his assistant, Elissa Fairchild.”

The crowd applauded politely, as I walked out on to the stage. I saw all of them looking up at me with anticipation, and I tried to remember what I had planned to say. I was all mic’ed up too, so they could hear anything I said. I was still very nervous about performing in front of others, so I tried to imagine that I was back at home, like Elissa suggested.

“Now, I wonder where my lovely assistant is?” I said aloud. I had decided to imitate some of my dad’s performance in the way he said things.

A guy dressed in a mover’s outfit wheeled a tall, three-part box onto the stage. He then said, “Excuse me, sir, this just arrived for you.”

“Thanks, maybe it’s the more reliable assistant I ordered.”

I got a muted laugh for the joke. Off to a good start, I thought.

The mover set the box down in the middle of the stage and took the dolly away. I walked over to the box and opened the three doors on the sections of it.

“Hmm…,” I said. “One box, three doors….”

I closed all the doors and started pacing around in front of it on the stage. A few seconds later, there was a knock coming from the box. I looked at the box, and then at the audience.

“Did you hear that?” as I asked this I looked out in the crowd and saw a good amount of the audience nodding their heads.

I walked over to the box and I opened the bottom box saw a pair of legs and feet just standing there. I opened the top box and saw Elissa’s torso and the hand that did the knocking, waving out of it. I then opened the middle box and there was Elissa’s head sitting there, looking at me.

“Hey, Zee. Mind giving me a hand here?” Elissa’s head spoke to me.

“Sure, I can help you, I hope. Let’s see if I can put you back together again.”

I closed all the boxes and took the top one off and placed it on the ground. I removed the middle box, and set it next to the first, and then put the first one in its place. I then attached the other box to the top of it. After they were in place in what I thought was the right order, and I opened the doors and saw something that didn’t look right, her feet were now on top, but her midsection was in the right place. I opened the bottom door, and saw her head down there.

“Did you forget something?” she asked.

I smacked my head as I remembered, “Oh yeah!”

I closed all the boxes again, and this time spun in around three times and tapped the box with the wand that I pulled out of my jacket. I then opened the three doors.

Elissa stood there, with her hands on her hips and walked out, “Thanks for putting me back together; I was having problems telling which way was which.”

The audience laughed more for her than me. We both walked towards the audience and took a small bow. After doing that first trick for them, I was starting to have a lot more fun with doing this now. Being up in front of people didn’t seem so bad anymore. But, I was still worried about embarrassing myself if I made a mistake during the performance. Although, having Elissa next to me made it all better.

“For this next part I’m going to need a volunteer from the audience,” I said into the crowd.

A large number of hands rose from the crowd, and I selected a guy from the third row.

“Let’s give him a nice applause for being brave enough to volunteer,” I said, with the audience cheering for him.

I pulled a pack of cards out of a jacket pocket as he came up on to the stage. I took the cards out of the box, and handed the deck to the young man.

“What’s your name?”

“Uhh…Jason.”

“Now for my next trick. Please feel free to check the deck for anything out of the ordinary,” I said.

He fanned the cards, looked them over, and then handed them back to me.

I then shuffled the deck, and then fanned the cards to him. “Pick a card, any card.”

He pulled a card out of the deck, and looked at it.

“Feel free to show it to the audience,” I said, which he did. “Now, place it on top of the deck.”

After he placed the card, I said, “Now Jason, I’m going to cut the deck, and then you are going to help me out with this next part, okay?”

“Okay, how?” he asked.

“Hold out your hand, and hold the cards, loosely. Use your other hand to steady the deck.”

He did so, holding out his hand, as I placed the deck standing up in the palm of his hand.

“Now, I’m going to command the deck to push your card out of it.”

“Yeah, right,” Jason replied, thinking that it wouldn’t work.

“No, watch.”

I then waved my hands by the deck, and then, slowly, but surely, a card began to rise from the deck. I pointed at it and said, “Is that your card, the ace of spades, perhaps?”

He looked surprised and shocked, and then said, “How’d you do that?”

I simply smiled and winked at him. I then said, “Let’s give him a nice round of applause for helping me out.”

The crowd applauded again, and Elissa then walked over to me holding a handkerchief and a chain shackle.

“What are you going to do with that?” I asked her.

“I want to see if you can get this escape like Houdini,” she said, teasingly to me.

She demonstrated the padlocks and chains on either end of the shackle, as well as the strength of the metal that connected the two together, but left a good deal of space between the two hands.

“You, sir, in the front row,” Elissa said, pointing to a young gentleman sitting next to someone in a
cheerleader’s uniform.

“Me?” he said.

“Yes, would you come up here and help me lock this guy up for trying to play magician?”

He laughed evilly, and then walked up on to the stage.

Elissa then asked, “What’s your name?”

“Steve.”

“Well, Steve, would you care to inspect the shackles?”

Steve nodded and inspected the chains, the locks and the metal of the chain shackle, and the wrapped the chains around my wrists and padlocked them.

“Make sure you have the keys,” Elissa said as she handed them to him.

Steve put the two keys into one of the pockets in his jeans and said, “Let’s see you get out of that, you little dweeb.”

I rolled my eyes at that comments, and tried in vain to try to get out of the shackles by trying to force them. He just stood there and laughed at me. I think this guy didn’t like me a whole lot for some reason. Elissa covered my hands as I tried to break free from the shackles.

As Steve was just standing there laughing, I reached with my right hand and pulled him closer to me, as
though my hand wasn’t in the shackle. He did a double-take and pulled the handkerchief off my hands.

“I’m still shackled here,” I said, proving it again by having my hands try to force their way out of the
shackles. “See? They’re nice and tight.”

He grumbled and then replaced the handkerchief. The sounds of the chain echoed in the room again. The handkerchief started to slip down one of my hands and I quickly replaced it with one of my hands, which again appeared free of the chain.

Before he could say or do anything, I pulled him closer with the other hand, which seemed be free of the handcuffed shackles. He pulled the handkerchief off of my hands again, showing that my hands were still shackled.

“Is something wrong?” I said, with a note of concern in my voice. “I’m still stuck here.”

The audience laughed lightly while he grumbled again and then replaced the handkerchief. The chains made their noise again as I worked to get out of the shackles and then I flipped the handkerchief down, holding the chain shackle in the other hand.

The audience broke out in applause and laughter. I thanked the audience member for his help. He begrudgingly handed me the keys to the padlocks, and I handed the chain shackle back to Elissa.

I pointed to the cheerleader who was sitting next to him, and asked her to come up onto the stage. She was rather chipper and excited to be coming up on the stage.

By the time that she got up next to me, I had pulled out a white handkerchief and held it in one of my hands.

I turned to the girl and said, “And who would you be?”

She replied, “My name’s Christina.”

“Christina, would you believe that I can make this float in the air?”

She giggled and then said, “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. Watch.”

I then folded the handkerchief into a scrunched up ball and placed it in my right hand. With my left pointer finger I flicked it above it and acted like I had the handkerchief on a string. After a couple of seconds the handkerchief began to twitch and move around and then it began to rise from my hand by a couple of inches.

The volunteer from the audience opened her mouth wide, and then gasped, “Holy….”

“How about something prettier?”

She gave me a blank look, as I unfolded the handkerchief and begun to refold it tightly and into a unique pattern.

“What’re you doing?” she asked, trying to figure it out as I worked.

“This,” I said, holding up a flower.

I then placed the flower in my hand and placed my other hand over it. With that hand I motioned like I was controlling a wooden puppet and the flower rose from my hand, stood upright, and hovered above my hand for a bit. I then rotated my hands around the flower, and let them fall away.

The crowd gasped as the flower just hovered there, seemingly without any support whatsoever.

“How are you doing that?” Christina the cheerleader asked, with a look of shock on her face.

“Magic, of course,” I replied. “Now for some fireworks.”

I pulled out a lighter and lit the folded flower on fire. It burst into a tiny flame. I reached in and pulled out a delicate rose and presented it to the cheerleader.

“A token, of my appreciation for a lovely volunteer,” I said, as I lightly bowed to her as she took the rose.

The crowd burst into applause, and the young lady went back to take her seat. The guy she sat next to seemed to grumble, clearly not liking me giving her that flower.

I turned around and saw that Elissa, along with the help of the mover, had wheeled out a different box than the one she arrived in and bunch of swords. As they were setting up the last trick of the act, I turned to the audience and said, “Now, ladies and gentlemen, I enter this box and make myself disappear.
And, if that weren’t tricky enough, my lovely assistant will pierce the box with those swords. If I’m not able to get out of the box, you will see me skewered like a kabob when she opens it.”

The audience laughed at that little joke I threw in. I took a deep breath, bowed to the audience and stepped into the box. Elissa closed the box after me, and locked it tightly with the padlock. I could see the light filtering in through the slits where the swords would go. I tried my best to keep my breathing steady, as this was the trickiest illusion that I knew how to do. I knew that Elissa and I were as nervous as hell.

A few seconds later, as Elissa was performing the routine outside, I saw the first sword pierce the top of the box. I quickly began what I had to do get out of the box before I really did become a kabob.

Before I went out of the box, I heard a loud scream and the next thing I knew a sword came into the box at the wrong angle. I felt it pierce my gut and I cried out in pain. The box quickly opened, and I saw the audience looking at me and I figure out that something had definitely gone wrong with the illusion. I grasped my side where the sword had pierced me and saw the blood trickle out of the wound. I wondered what had happened as I collapsed to the ground. As I was blacking out from the excruciating pain, I was thinking that I was going to die.

 
 
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: At long last, here is the second part of Zee's story. A very big thanks to my editor for helping with the edits.

I felt like something had crashed on my head when I awoke the following morning. I was surprised to find that I was tucked in my own bed, instead of some hospital. I clutched my head as I sat up in bed. My sheets fell down to waist, and I saw that someone had changed me into my pajamas while I was unconscious; I was guessing Dad had done that.

I yawned and then clutched the spot where the sword had pierced my side. Strangely, I felt no pain. I pulled my torso out from underneath the bed covers and rolled up my pajama shirt, and saw that there was no wound where there should have been. The skin felt smooth around and where the wound should have been.

I shook my head, and just assumed that my wound had healed over already. But, I knew it couldn’t have been that easy. I didn’t want to think about it right now, so I decided to go see if a shower could shake off these strange feelings.

I let the water warm up a bit before I stepped into the shower. As soon as my skin touched the water, I yelped. I also jumped and ended up slipping and landing on my butt. As I nursed by bruised bottom, I wonder why the water felt different than usual. I stood back up and cautiously stepped into the spray. The water wasn’t as much of a shock like before, it just felt a little warmer than usual.

I shrugged off any doubts that this was related to the shock that I had went through last night, and proceeded to suds up and get clean. I wondered if I was just imagining things with my skin sending off strange signals and my leg wound.

After my shower, I quickly threw on some street clothes and headed down for some breakfast. For some reason, I was feeling very hungry and not sure why. I entered the kitchen a few minutes later, where I saw my father and Elissa sitting at the kitchen island eating some cereal for breakfast.

“Well, look who finally got up,” Elissa said.

“Ha, ha, ha,” I replied sarcastically. I climbed onto one of the stools surrounding the island and poured my self some breakfast.

As I was pouring the milk for my cereal I asked, “So, what happened after I passed out?”

“We won the talent show,” Elissa said, matter-of-factly.

I spat out my cereal in surprise and said through my choking, “What?!”

“We still won, even though I accidentally stabbed you,” Elissa said, a little embarrassed.

“Yeah, what was with that?” I asked.

“The jerk in the front row was jealous of the flower you gave his girlfriend. He shot me with a spitwad that caused me to jump while I had that sword in my hands. I am so, so, so, sorry about that, Zee.”

“It’s okay, Elissa. It wasn’t your fault. I forgive you.”

I climbed off my stool and went over to give her a big hug of forgiveness, I then added, “I know that you wouldn’t intentionally hurt me.”

“How are you doing, Zane?” my dad asked, after I broke away from Elissa.

“I’m all right. Although, I wasn’t expecting to heal so quickly from that.”

“Really? Let me see,” Elissa said.

I rolled up my blue jeans to where I was stabbed with the sword as Dad and Elissa took a look. Both of them looked surprised when they saw that there was no wound present, not even a scratch.

Elissa stammered, “But… but… the cut was deep! You were bleeding like crazy! That’s not possible.”

When I glanced at dad, it appeared that he was in deep thought, as he stroked his chin. I asked him, “What is it, Dad?”

“Wha?” he replied, “Oh. Umm…,”

“Spit it out, Dad.”

“I need to head into the city today,” he said, as he moved towards the door.

“What? I thought that you had today off to help us move the magic tricks from school.”

“I just remembered that I need to take care of something important in the city today that I started on yesterday. I will be back in time for dinner though.”

Dad rushed out of the room like he had a huge army chasing him.

“What’s with him?” I wondered.

“I don’t know,” Elissa replied. “Looks like he’s freaked out about something.”

We both shrugged as I finished up eating my breakfast. The bowl of cereal was good along with the glass of orange juice that Elissa had just poured for me.

“So, you wanna head out, and starting packing?”

I set down my glass and nodded. “Just let me take care of these first, okay?”

“Okay,” Elissa replied.

I washed my dishes up in the sink and put them away. I also took care of my dad’s and Elissa’s dishes in the sink. I found it was easier to take care of the dishes, instead of letting them pile up on you.

As we were headed out the door, I felt around my neck for my necklace. I quickly did a double-take as I realized that my necklace was not where it should have been. I was starting to panic, and I rushed back upstairs to my bedroom to search the dresser where I kept it if I ever took it off. I was shocked to find that it wasn’t there. I quickly ran back downstairs where Elissa was putting her shoes on?

“Where is it?” I asked, a note of panic in my voice.

“Where’s what?” she replied.

“My necklace! It’s not upstairs on my dresser and I don’t have it. Where is it?”

She stammered, “I… I… I don’t know. I thought that you still had it on you during the show.”

“I did. Do you think it could’ve fallen off me?”

“It’s possible. We should look for it while we’re packing things up. Maybe it fell off during the sword trick.”

“Then, let’s get going. I want my necklace back.”

I quickly slipped on my shoes and headed out the door to my bike. I had to get my necklace back; it was the only thing that I had that reminded me of my mother.

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

We rode our bikes to school and locked them up in the bike rack. We walked around to the auditorium, where we saw a number of vehicles hauling away any props that were used during the talent show by the various performers. Principal Wilson was out and about helping move a piano that someone had used into their red Ford F-150 truck.

I walked over to the principal as he was helping the pianist’s family pull the bungee cords over the piano.

“Mr. Wilson,” I said.

“Zane,” he replied with a grunt as he pulled on the cord. “Nice to see you up and about. I thought you would be in worse shape after what happened last night.”

“I did, too. Listen, did you happen to see a necklace near any of my stuff when you were cleaning up last night?”

“A necklace?” he replied. “I don’t think I did.”

I grumbled, and then said, “Are you sure? This necklace is really important to me, and I was wearing it last night.”

The principal finished securing the piano, and walked over to the passenger door of the cab. As he climbed in, he sighed and then stated, “I’m not sure if I did or not. If it fell off of you as they were hauling you off, it may have fell into the box you were in. I’d check there first, if I were you.”

The driver of the truck said, “We’re going, John.”

“Zane, I have to go. I’m helping the Anderson’s with their piano for a good chunk of the day. If I see a necklace when I return, I’ll let you know.”

I sighed and said solemnly, “Thanks, Mr. Wilson. I’ll keep an eye out for it while Elissa and I pack up our stuff.”

I turned and headed towards the open auditorium doors, looking over my shoulder and seeing them drive off. The backstage area was quiet and dim; I’m guessing that Elissa and I were among the last few people that needed to take stuff home. I saw her leaning into the sword box, looking through it.

“Did you find it?” I asked, as I reached her.

“Nope, sorry, Zee,” she said, climbing up and out of the box.

I grumbled. “Where could it be?”

“Well, why don’t we start packing some of this stuff up? Who knows? It could turn up while we’re doing that.”

“All right,” I said, griping.

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

It seemed like Elissa and I were packing for hours when I slumped down next to sword box. My arms were feeling a little sore and I needed a break from packing up the boxes. I hadn’t seen a sign of my necklace while we packing. I was feeling frustrated by not being able to find it.

Elissa walked over and knelt by my side. She held out a water bottle to me and said, “Thought you might be thirsty.”

I accepted the bottle, and replied, “Thanks.”

I took a few swigs of the cool water and asked her, “Any luck?”

“I haven’t seen it anywhere.” She sighed, and added, “Sorry.”

I grumbled in frustration some more. “I really need to find it, Elissa.”

“I know, Zee. I know.”

She reached her arm around me, and gave me a big comforting hug. “Don’t worry, we’ll find it.”

I grabbed her hand and held on to it tightly, “Thanks.”

We heard the approach of footsteps as we sat there. I wondered who it could be, since we were currently the only people working and packing in the backstage area of the auditorium. Looking towards the door, we saw the principal walking towards us. It looked like he had just returned from helping the Andersons with their piano.

“Mr. Wilson,” Elissa said, as he walked over to us, “how did you like the show last night?”

“I enjoyed it very much, thank you. How’s the packing?” he replied, with a smile.

“Alright,” I replied. “We were just making sure that we have everything.”

“Good,” he said. “I came down here to see if you needed help.”

“I think we have everything handled at the moment,” I replied.

The principal nodded and just stared at us a moment. He then said, “I’ll be around should you need it.”

“Thank you,” I replied.

The principal walked off towards a cluttered area of the backstage area. He glanced back at us, as he headed over to where there were a large number of costumes on some clothing racks.

We continued packing up the magic tricks after a few more minutes of gathering our strength again. Mr. Wilson came back every few minutes or so to check up on us, repeating his willingness to assist us. I found that it was nice of him to keep offering, but after the third time it was starting to get old. When he headed back towards the costume racks, I heard him grumbling under his breath, in frustration.

As soon as he was out of earshot, I asked Elissa, “Is it just me, or does he want us to leave?”

“What makes you say that?” she replied.

“He keeps coming over every so often, and offering help.”

“So? Maybe he just wants to help?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “maybe I’m being a little paranoid.”

“Relax, Zee. He’s probably just being helpful.”

“Alright, if you think so.”

We continued packing for a few minutes more, when Elissa said, “Why don’t you grab my costume from one of the racks.”

“It’s on a rack? I thought that you rushed out with Dad when I was injured.”

“I wanted to. But, someone had to stay behind, so that we didn’t forfeit. I didn’t want all our hard work to go to waste.”

“Okay, I’ll go get it,” I said, standing up with a tone of frustration in my voice.

The costume racks contained various costumes ranging from those used in Shakespearean plays to those from various eras through American history. I had been to a couple of the plays and skits that the Drama class would perform, and the costumes they had were pretty good, since the drama teacher and the students made them themselves. There were several racks in the back of the room, all with various outfits that were in no particular order.

I groaned in frustration as it seemed that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I thought to myself, ‘Why did she have to leave her costume here? Why couldn’t she have worn it home?’

I just shook my head, as I began flipping through the various costumes on the racks. I was amazed that the school had such a variety, but considering how often the drama classes put on shows, I shouldn’t have been.

As I was flipping through another of the racks, I heard a strange voice talking, “Are you sure about him? He doesn’t look any different than last night.”

The voice sounded a bit familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. My curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to listen to what the voice was saying.

“I hope your intel was right about this one. I take great pride in my work,” the voice said in harsh tones, just before pausing for a time.

The pause threw me off only for a second. I soon realized that whomever it was talking on a cell phone. I crept around the racks to try to get a better view of the owner of the voice. As I poked my head around the costume rack, I saw the principal talking on a cell phone. However, it wasn’t his voice coming out of his mouth.

“Listen, Milton,” the principal said harshly, and in a much lower sinister tone, “if this kid doesn’t show his true colors soon, I may have to follow up on a job offer in Chicago.”

He paused again, as this Milton talked on the phone.

“Fine!” he stressed into his phone, “I’ll try provoking the kid into doing something, to try to force their abilities out. I’ll call you when I leave.”

The phony principal shut his cell phone, and grunted loudly in frustration. I decided to get out of there as soon as possible and warn Elissa that the principal was a fake and that he was up to something. I tried to slip away unnoticed hoping to get Elissa and get out of there as fast as we could. I ended up tripping over one of the legs of a costume rack, scattering a number of the costumes all around.

I heard a nearby scuffle and I saw the phony principal peek out around the costume rack. In his right hand, he held a pistol that I’ve seen on television used by the cops. My heart sank into my stomach as I saw him look over at me. An eerie smile crept over his face. I was hoping that he wasn’t going to shoot me as he methodically aimed his weapon.

“Well, well,” the fake principal said in his phone voice with very creepy and evil tones, “Looks like someone was listening to something they weren’t supposed to.”

I gulped as I watched him silently, trying to come up with a way to get out of there. My eyes glanced at everything around me, trying to look for something to use. A few seconds later, my eyes fell on something that could be useful.

“You know something,” he said, as he tapped the muzzle of the barrel against his cheek, “I’m a bit disappointed, I was expecting something more.”

He looked up and the ceiling, still with the muzzle of the gun against his cheek, and continued, “I don’t know what my employer has in mind about you, but I’ll let her figure that out.”

At that moment, I kicked the nearby clothing rack into his leg. He yelled out in pain from the impact and hopped around on one foot away from me while I dashed off to find Elissa.

‘Thank you,’ I thought, as I saw her still packing at the tricks.

“Elissa,” I said, grabbing her and panting to catch my breath from the dead sprint.

“Zee,” she said, looking concerned, “what’s going on?”

“We have to go, that’s not the principal,” I said, panting.

“What do you mean? That’s not the principal?”

The fake principal stumbled out from the clothing racks and lifted the gun towards us. I caught a glance at his face and half of it seemed very different. The face underneath was bald and very ugly. The skin was pale and the face resembled like a skull. It was as though a part of a mask had been torn off. It gradually reverted back to the principal’s face as he approached the two of us.

“I see what you mean,” Elissa said, as the two of us turned and began to run.

We headed for the doors that led deeper into the school; the fake principal stood between us and doors that led outside. I was just hoping that those doors were unlocked. Elissa beat me to the doors, and tried to open them, but they were locked. She took some of her frustration out on trying to open them, but with no luck.

“Damn! They’re locked!” she exclaimed.

I tried the doors when I got there as well and also found that they were locked. “Dammit!”

I whirled around and watched as whoever was pursuing us was getting closer. As he was raising his weapon at us again, I quickly tried the doors. They nudged themselves open as if they been jammed shut instead of locked.

“Come on!” I said, hitting Elissa in the arm, as we dashed through.

We ran down the darkened corridors, trying to get away from that mysterious person. The lockers flanked either side of us, as we were careening down the hall. I happened to steal a glance behind us, and saw that our pursuer was starting to catch up to us.

“Quick! This way!” Elissa shouted, as we she pulled me in the direction of the science corridor.

The science corridor was just as dark as that corridor we had just left. The science classrooms had windows that overlooked the corridor, and I remembered looking out of those windows to see if I could see anyone walk by when I should have been paying attention in class. Now, these windows had nothing but darkness, acting like a brick wall. As we past by a darkened classroom, my eye caught sight of a faint light coming out of one of the rooms, from behind a cracked door.

“Over here,” I said to Elissa, pointing to the room.

We opened the door to the chemistry lab and noticed that the light left on was a lamp by the teacher’s computer. Elissa rushed over there to turn off the light, while I hid behind one of the lab benches that was parallel to the wall with the corridor windows. The lab benches were situated around the edge of the classroom, along three of the four walls. The fourth wall was the location of the room’s whiteboard. There were a number of tables and chairs in the center of the room where other students would sit at when there were no experiments to be performed. Elissa dashed over to me and we breathed heavily as we tried to conceal our presence as best we could. I poked my head out from behind the bench, trying to observe the phony’s movements.

A few minutes had passed and there was no sign of the fake. Our breathing had slowed a little as we thought that we were out of danger, for the time being.

Elissa looked at me and asked, “You mind telling me what’s going on, now?”

I nodded, and then told her what I overheard of the fake principal’s phone call.

“So, what you’re saying is that he was supposed to be observing us?” she replied.

“Yes, but I messed that up for him.”

“Apparently.”

“Any ideas on getting out of this mess?”

“Not really.”

“Oh?”

“Well, we can always make a mad dash for the front door.”

I snickered at that suggestion, “Let’s have that as our backup plan.”

“Alright,” she said, as the door to the lab opened.

‘Dammit!’ I thought to myself, ‘Probably should’ve checked to make sure that door was closed.’

The fake principal entered the room and began a methodical search. I looked over at Elissa and put my finger over my mouth to indicate to be quiet. I then pointed at the door that led to the back store room. Elissa nodded in understanding. I poked my head around the lab bench and saw that he was currently looking in a corner, away from us.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he said in an eerie voice, taunting us to come out of hiding.

His voice just seemed to make my skin crawl. I motioned to Elissa to be ready to move, and she nodded.

I waited for a few more seconds and then nodded to Elissa. The two of us crouched and moved as close to the store room door as we could without making much noise. We managed to make it behind the lab bench that was directly next to the door and all we had to do was open it in order to move to another of the adjoining classrooms.

I snuck a peek around the lab bench that we were currently at. The fake principal didn’t seem to realize that we had moved and was now inspecting the area around the next lab bench, moving counterclockwise around the room.

“I know you’re in here, you no good brats. It would be easier if you’d just surrender. I promise to make it quick.”

He added an evil sounding chuckle after that. It made the hair on the back of my neck stick up straight. I mouthed to Elissa that I would go first and for her to wait until he had his back turned again. I crouched over to the door, opened it quietly, and slipped inside. I left the door cracked so Elissa could slip in when she had the chance.

I took a quick look around the room, and I saw the shelf lined with various chemicals and preserved animals. There were a couple of large refrigerators on one side of the room, with a microwave and sink on the other side. The room seemed to feel very cramped, but then I thought that high schools don’t have a lot of room to store stuff for science classes.

About a minute later, I saw her approach the door and slip inside with me.

“That was close,” she whispered.

“Did he see you?” I replied.

“I don’t think so,” she said, just before we heard the glass behind us shatter. “Then again, maybe he did.”

Elissa and I bolted towards the biology classroom, just as the fake principal opened the door to the storeroom. The phony fired off a couple shots off at us and I had my arms flailing for a second, trying to provide as little of a target as possible. Elissa flung open a freezer door as we passed it in our wake. We reached the door to the biology classroom and I opened the door to Elissa. As I looked back at our pursuer, I saw that there were various chemicals from the freezer and the shelves that were flinging themselves across the room, some of them hitting the fake principal.

I snickered as I saw him try to dodge the flying chemicals. Those that impacted him caused his suit he was wearing to start degrading.

“Zee!” Elissa shouted.

I turned and rushed out the door, and the two of us quickly ran out of the biology classroom before he could catch up to us again. As soon as were back in the hallway, we made a dash down the next corridor, which led toward the locker rooms and the gymnasium. Elissa and I tried the lock on each of the doors, but only the women’s locker room door was open. I groaned and Elissa just gave me a look that said, “Just deal with it.” The two of us ran in there to try to hide and figure out our next move.

The first things I noticed about the women’s locker room was that it smelled more pleasant and there were a lot more posters hanging from the walls. Other than that, it was laid out nearly the same way as the men’s locker room, but a whole lot cleaner. I felt a bit nervous being in there, since I didn’t know if any of the women’s sport teams had a practice today.
“Zee,” Elissa said, “will you just get over yourself?”

“Elissa,” I replied. “This is the girl’s locker room.”

“Yes and you don’t have anything to worry about with the other girls. The guy who’s chasing us? Him, you have to worry about.”

I just shook my head, and asked her, “So, you have a plan?”

“We could barricade the door with something.”

“With what?” I asked. “The lockers are attached to the walls and the benches are bolted to the ground.”

“We could move the trash and the lost and found cans in front of the door.”

“It’s a start,” I reluctantly agreed.

We pushed as many of those cans up the small ramp that led from the door we had entered. After stacking four or five large cans of stuff against the door, we went back down and rested for a bit on one of the benches.

“That’s not going to hold forever, you know,” I commented.

“No, but it should buy us some time,” she replied. “Come up with a good plan to lose him so we can escape?”

“We could always go through the food court and the cafeteria,” I suggested.

“That would only buy us a couple of minutes,” Elissa said.

“True, but, we would also get out of the school, since the cafeteria leads to the food court.”

As soon as she was about to say something, the door to the locker room burst open. The trash and lost clothes cans were scattered down the small ramp. The clothes that he wore, however, were in tatters, due to all the chemicals splashing on him. However, he no longer looked like the principal. He now had that skull-like face again. His face was hideously ugly as it looked like a skull with skin stretched over it.

I thought I heard Elissa scream in fright and surprise for a second. I told her, “Time to go!”

We bolted from the benches and headed towards the other exit at the opposite end of the room. The gun fired off a few more rounds, and luckily they impacted the lockers. Elissa and I quickly decided to weave in and out of the lockers to keep him from getting any decent aim.

“This guy doesn’t know when to quit, does he?” Elissa asked, breathing heavily as we rounded the next set of lockers.

“I guess not,” I replied.

Out of nowhere, the lockers in front of and behind us burst open, as if something forced them open violently from the inside. Various paraphernalia flew out of the lockers pelting us and our assailant with a bunch of stuff. Perfumes, lotions, and various hair products that the girls had in their lockers were bombarding us with various scents and smells. Our clothes and skin was being smeared with the various makeup products that they had. Spare bras and panties were also being caught on our bodies as we ran through the room.
“What’s going on?” Elissa shouted as she was pelted by another bottle of shampoo.

“How should I know?” I replied through the torrent.

“Is he causing this?”

I whipped my head around to get a look at him, and he looked even more frustrated than we were.

“I don’t think so, Elissa.”

The barrage of various products increased behind us as we emerged from the locker room close to the cafeteria. Our assailant slowed down a bit, as the storm of grooming products pelted him relentlessly.

The two of us ran towards the cafeteria, and opened the doors. As we ran, it felt like my clothes were feeling a lot tighter on my body than they were this morning. My skin was also feeling like it was being rubbed hard as well. I put those thoughts aside for the moment as we slumped down to the ground to rest by the door, and took another breather. We looked at each other, to make sure we were alright, and then, for no reason, Elissa started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“You, you have a-,” she tried to get out of her mouth, but she was overcome by a fit of laughter as she pointed to the top of my head.

I reached on top of it, and found that a bra was snagged in my hair. I removed the bra from my hair, and then started to laugh.

“How did this come along for the ride?” I asked through my own bouts of hysteria.

“I don’t know, but you looked so silly with it on you!”

The two of us both laughed some more until Elissa pointed toward the other end of the cafeteria.

“Look! The way out of here!” she shouted.

I looked to where she was pointing, and saw the glass door that separated the cafeteria from the outdoor food court. We both breathed a sigh of relief, glad that we were almost clear. However, our reprieve was short lived as we were interrupted by a pounding on the door.

“He always has to spoil our breaks, doesn’t he?” Elissa commented.

The two of us got up, and made a dash for the exit. Our assailant fired off another few shots at us, and luckily they were a bit wide. The tables and benches that were usually down during mealtime were in their respective slots along the wall, and for a second, I wished that they were out to help us dodge his attacks.

A loud noise echoed through the cafeteria. We looked over at the table and bench wall, watching the tables coming out of the walls on their own!

Elissa and I looked at each other, bewildered. We turned and saw that the tables and the benches were rolling their way right at our attacker. He saw them coming for him and he tried to dodge and roll around them. Some of them did knock him to his feet, but he quickly recovered and stood back up.

Elissa and I turned and kept running, as the benches and tables in front of us were now coming out of their slots and headed for us. As we tried to avoid them, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. I ran through everything strange happening ever since our pursuer began the chase.

First, it was that door that was locked, and then it was suddenly just jammed. Then, in the chemical storeroom, the chemicals sprung from their shelf and flew across the room. In the girl’s locker room, the lockers burst open and their contents went flying around. And now, the benches and tables that were usually rolled away during the weekend were coming out and just causing chaos in the room.

‘What the hell is going on here?’ I thought to myself, while trying to avoid an oncoming bench.

We were nearing the exit to the room when we heard a loud bang overhead. I looked up and saw that a light bulb had exploded. As I watched, more bulbs had exploded, showering glass and electrical stuff as they traveled from the hallway end of the room to the exit.

“Great!” Elissa commented sarcastically, “Is there anything else than can possibly can go wrong?”

No sooner than the words were out of her mouth than soda from the dispensers and leftover food from the refrigerators came pelting out of the kitchen and headed straight for the three of us.

“Look out!” I shouted.

Elissa turned to look, and got smacked in the face with some pizza. I made a face that was a mix of laughter and grossed out, just before I got hit with some leftover ice cream. Soda stopped short of our pursuer causing him to slip. He slid down the floor for a bit, knocking into some of the benches that had stopped moving.

His impact had caused them to roll straight for us. I pushed Elissa out of the way, as they headed for us, and I saw the benches slam in to the glass door. Elissa and I quickly got back to our feet as the overhead sprinklers went off soaking the entire room in water.

As we exited through the broken glass and into the outdoor food court, we quickly dashed for the bike rack. Elissa and I decided to jump off the steps in attempt to get there more quickly, but we ended up eating some of the asphalt.

“Ow!!!” she screamed, clutching her shin.

Pain flared through my legs, as I heard my jeans tear. I looked at the legs of my jeans and I saw that they had ripped down the seams. I could see my ankles and a bit of my lower leg, where the cuff of the pants used to be. Before I wondered how I could see that much of my leg I quickly rushed over to Elissa.

“You okay?” I asked, looking at her injury.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, climbing back to her feet. “It doesn’t feel like I broke anything.”

“Good,” I said, as I grabbed her hand, and raced towards our bikes.

We ran as fast as we could, but it was difficult. We had already run through a good chunk of the school, and we were definitely feeling it in our legs. My legs definitely felt different than I was used to though. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was definitely up with them.

I sighed and muttered, “Thank God,” as we saw that our bikes were still locked in the rack.

I heard a ricochet of a bullet, and catching a glance back, I saw our assailant load another clip into his pistol, then taking aim. Turning back toward the bikes I saw the Prius drive up and skid nearby. My dad jumped out of the car and rushed over to us.

“Are you two okay?” he asked us.

Elissa and I both looked at him, and nodded.

“We’re all right, Dad.”

“Good, get to the car and stay there,” he replied.

I wasn’t in the mood to disagree with him. I just wanted to get as far away from our crazy pursuer as fast as I could.

“Shot gun,” Elissa said, with a giggle.

I groaned as we headed for the car. Elissa jumped into the front seat, while I climbed into the back. We both then watched my dad stand up to whoever it was. I was mystified to why my dad wasn’t running away with us. I had never known Dad to do anything like this. I had never known him to stand up and fight someone, especially someone who was holding a gun. But, I knew that my dad hated bullies. I remember the day that he had told me to stand up to a bully that had been picking on me for most of the first month of school in the seventh grade.

His name was John Dee. He was a lot bigger than me and they kept calling me names, pushing me into the lockers, taking my lunch money, and even threw me into a few trash cans. I didn’t know what his problem was with me; I guess I just pulled the unlucky draw. One day, I came home very bruised and smelling horrible. Dad was home early from preparing for a show in the city and he flipped when he saw the state that I was in. After a long talk, he convinced me to stand up to the bully and confront him.

I took his advice, and in front of a large crowd at school, stood my ground against John, or “Dream Boy” as his cronies called him. I heard that he had earned that nickname after one of his former targets had nightmares about him for months. He didn’t like the idea of someone standing up to him and he had his goons hold me down while he took a few shots at me. After several shots, I saw Elissa come up and clock John hard in the jaw, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. Most of the school had witnessed it, and John was humiliated that a girl hit him to the ground with one punch. She helped me to the nurse’s office, and I realized that I had an awesome friend in her.

Now, as I watched my dad take a stand, I couldn’t help but think back to that bully. However, I wasn’t sure if he was brave or foolish to try to stand up to who was after Elissa and me. Maybe he was a little bit of both. All that Elissa and I could do now was sit and watch.

“Just who the hell are you?” the attacker said, when he saw my dad standing between him and the car.

My dad was dressed in his magician’s attire; I assumed that he came directly here from something that required the costume. I watched as his cape fluttered in the breeze behind him.

“Leave my son and his friend alone,” my dad said in an imposing tone.

“Like hell. My employer wants the neo… neofi…. Bah! The whatever!”

“Neophyte?” my father replied.

“Yeah, that! And I’ll do anything to get the job done,” he said, raising the gun at my dad.

“You are welcome to try.”

I had no idea what my dad meant by neophyte. I didn’t even know what it meant. My guess was that it was referring to Elissa or me.

As I was wondering what was meant, the attacker opened fire on my dad. I heard at least two or three gunshots. I gasped as I saw a plume of smoke spring up from the ground surrounding my dad, as the bullets whizzed by.

Elissa and I, along with whoever was shooting at him, looked for where my dad went off to. We couldn’t see much until the smoked had cleared away. I was guessing that my dad had used a smoke bomb to conceal his movements. After the smoked had cleared, we watched the attacker look around and saw a hand tap his shoulder.

“Looking for me?” my dad said, before he punched the attacker square in the jaw.

The attacker momentarily lost his balance from the surprise of my dad clocking him in the face. He stumbled back a couple of steps and said, “I was told to leave you out of this, magician. Guess I don’t have to now.”

The assailant then swiftly punched my dad in the gut twice. Dad doubled back in pain and tried to maintain his footing. He luckily did and managed to kick the mystery man in the side.

“I see you can fight,” the attacker observed.

“I’m not all illusions and tricks,” my dad replied, going at him again with his fists.

The two of them brawled around for a while. My dad was holding his own fairly well, but it started to show that he wasn’t well trained in martial fighting. Our attacker started getting closer to knocking him out of the fight. I was surprised of how long he was actually staying up.

The two of them moved around until the attacker’s back was to the bike racks. Although, the attacker didn’t seem to be too worried about it. He saw my dad huffing and puffing with some measure of exhaustion.

“Give it up, old man,” he provoked my dad.

Strangely though, my dad just smiled as he was breathing hard. My dad didn’t look too good as I could see him huffing and puffing.

“What are you smiling about?” the attacker asked.

My father didn’t answer, as he panted. Instead, my father lifted his arms up and aimed his hands at the bike rack.

The attacker laughed, and said, “You think you’re gonna strangle me?”

“No,” my father replied in a low tone, “I have something else in mind.”

My father had an interesting smile on his face, as he said something with in a strange language. I was surprised that it sounded somewhat familiar to me.

“Pu mih eit, kcar,” my father said.

I tried to figure out if it was any language that I have heard before, since it was familiar. I couldn’t quite place it though.

“Zee, look!” Elissa said, as she pointed toward the bike rack.

I looked over and watched as the empty bike rack shifted its form. The metal ground against itself, with its wrenching sound, as the attacker just stood there staring at my dad.

“Funny words, old man,” he said.

As he was about to take a shot at my dad with his fist, the metal of the rack lashed out against his strong arm’s shoulder. It pulled his shoulder back and towards the ground. Before he could react, the metal grabbed his other shoulder and did the same. The rack pulled him to the ground, hard.

“How?” the attacker yelled.

Two of the other empty racks reached out for his legs and wrapped themselves around them. They pulled hard and the assailant’s chest was forced onto the ground hard. The only thing he could do know was growl at my father as he was now hog-tied by the metal of the rack.

“If you want to be let go, I would suggest that you leave my friends and family alone. Got it?”

“This isn’t the end, magician.”

My father turned and left Elissa’s and my attacker hog-tied on the ground by the bike rack. He headed for the car and I could see that this was not quite the same man that I had known throughout my life. There was definitely more than meets the eye, I thought.

I felt tired and worn out, as I could feel the adrenaline slow through my body. I collapsed onto the back seat entirely. All I wanted to do now was just curl up and fall asleep.

“Wow,” Elissa said, “I didn’t know your dad could do anything like that.”

“Neither did I,” I said as I tried to stretch out across the back seat.

Normally, when I decided to lie down in the back seat of our car, I didn’t have to bend my knees to get comfortable. However, this time, my knees were bent a good deal. Most of my lower legs were exposed and I could see the tears along the seams of my jeans. When I looked at my legs, my calves seemed to be different somehow.

I tried stretching my arms, and I heard tearing sounds in my ears. I looked at surprise at my shirt, as it seemed that my arms were larger than the sleeves of my tee. They also appeared different as well.

‘Okay,’ I thought to myself, ‘What the hell is going on?’

Elissa turned around to look at me, as she said, “I wonder if your dad is–…. Zee! What happened to you?”

I asked her, “What do you mean?”

“Your clothes! They’re all ragged.”

“I guess I picked out some old clothes this morning.”

“I don’t think so. You wore that outfit last week.”

She gasped, and covered her mouth.

“What? What is it?”

“Your legs! Your arms! They’re different!”

I looked at my legs and arms, and said, “I don’t know. My skin looked like that when I woke up this morning.”

“I don’t mean your skin, I think they’re longer!”

“Longer?” I said, sitting up. As I did so, I bonked my head against the door.

“Ow!” I rubbed my head from where it hit the door and Elissa suggested, “Step out of the car. I want to check you out.”

“Elissa!”

“Relax, Zee,” she said, as we climbed out of the car.

“What’s going on?” my dad asked, as he saw us exit the vehicle. “I thought we were going home.”

“I need to check Zee out, Mr. Z. Something’s not quite right,” Elissa replied.

“I think she’s overreacting,” I replied.

“Oh?” she said, “then why are you taller than me?”

“What?”

I looked at Ellisa’s face, and realized she was right. Before, I had to look up at her to talk with her. Now, she was looking up at me.

“What’s going on?” I said as I looked over my body. As I looked myself over, I caught a glimpse of the tangled metal hulk that was the bike rack out of the corner of my eye.

“Look! He’s gone!”

Elissa and my dad whirled around and Elissa said, “Where did he go?”

We looked around, but couldn’t see him anywhere. I was hoping that he was gone, but I was scared that he was still nearby.

“Let’s go,” my dad said.

We both nodded, and climbed into the car. My dad started the car and began the drive back home. I continued to look over my limbs and tried to wrap my head around what was going on with it.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on, Dad?” I asked.

My dad didn’t say anything and I leaned forward towards him and said, “Dad?”

He said in a low voice, “No, but it’s just begun.”

---------

Author’s note: Please leave comments at the the bottom of the story. I will appreciate anything you have to say or ask about the story. It doesn’t have to be long and involved, I would just like your reaction to the story. Thanks, your feedback helps!

 
 
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 third part of Zee's story. It's a mostly filler chapter, but does provide some insight into what's going on. A very big thanks to my editor for helping with the edits.

Chapter 3

The car ride home was very quiet. My dad was focused on driving while Elissa tried her best to avoid looking at me. I felt like I was a stranger in my own body. It seemed to me that something was going on with me, I just couldn’t figure out what.

During the ride home, I was constantly looking at my altered body and was wondering what was going on. I was a lot taller than I used to be and my skin felt softer and smoother. My legs were a great deal longer with my thighs being a lot thicker and my calves seemed to be a bit curvier. As I looked at my arms, they seemed to be a little stronger but still felt soft to the touch.

I gasped as a thought passed through my head, ‘Was I becoming a girl? Was I a meta?’

Elissa glanced over to me after I gasped, but said nothing. She looked very nervous, as if she was afraid that she would get whatever was happening to me. That was a sobering thought, and I was hoping that she wouldn’t think that I was some sort of leper.

‘I can’t be a meta,’ I thought. ‘I haven’t displayed any kinds of special powers.’

I scratched my head as I tried to figure this out. As I did so, I noticed something else that had changed: my hair felt softer to the touch. I was starting to get a bit worried. I shook my head to try to stop thinking about the changes that were taking place, but I only got another reminder. I could feel my hair brush against my shoulders. I distinctively remember my hair being a couple of inches short of shoulder length.

My thoughts of what was happening to me were on my mind throughout the ride home, and up our long driveway. To me it seemed like my body had a mind of its own and that it suddenly decided to go through puberty in the most unusual way over the span of the last few hours.

I glanced up from my thoughts, and saw that we were pulling into the garage at home. Elissa looked over at me and asked, “You doing okay?”

I nodded and replied, “I need something to eat, you?”

Elissa replied, “Yeah, I could use some food.”

“Then why don’t you two make us some lunch and meet me in my study when you’re all cleaned up,” my dad interjected.

He rushed inside after asking that of us. I thought that my dad was acting very strange. However, considering what I had seen him do at school, it seemed like the entire world has been turned upside down.

Elissa and I pulled our bikes out of the trunk of the car and we set them down by the front door. Elissa inquired as she chained up her bike, “So, I thought magic was supposed to be all smoke and mirrors. What did your dad do, Zee?”

“I don’t know, Elissa. I just don’t know.”

“I’ll start getting lunch ready. You might want to go and find some clothes,” she suggested.

I looked down at myself and groaned. I forgot about my height change shredding the pair of blue jeans that was dangling from my waist, even my shirt was feeling tight on me. I shook my head and climbed the stairs to my room, hoping to find something that could work.

I looked around at my shorts and other pairs of jeans that I had, but it seemed like none of them would fit me, anymore. I had essentially outgrown most of my clothes in the span of a few minutes. I kept thinking to myself that this was really messed up.

After going through my closet, I huffed in frustration onto my bed. ‘Where am I going to find something decent?’ I thought to myself.

I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed that I still had a similar build to before I started changing. It looked like the only change in my appearance was the height difference, although my legs looked like they were longer than they should be. I thought for a moment about using some of Elissa’s clothes that she left over here when she would stay over the weekend, but decided against it since she and I seemed a little distant at the moment. Ultimately, I went with my gut and went to go rummage around in my dad’s closet. I was now about his height; although, I think he was still a little bit taller than I was.

I managed to find an old tee shirt of his as well as a pair of jean shorts. They were hiding in one of his dresser drawers where he kept most of his summer clothes. I tried them on and breathed a sigh of relief as they seemed to fit me for the most part. The only problem that I could tell now was that the cuffs of the shorts seemed to be a little tight, but I didn’t have any problems with them around my waist or hips.

I quickly glanced in the mirror to make sure that I was presentable. Everything looked alright, but this body was definitely going to take some getting used to.

‘Provided nothing else about me changes,’ I thought to myself as I made my down into the kitchen to help Elissa with making lunch.

As I walked into the kitchen, I saw Elissa had already begun to make lunch. She had pulled down a few plates, the cutting board and the bread, and then fished out the salami, lettuce, and tomato from the fridge. She was cutting up the tomatoes when I went to the fridge to grab the mayonnaise and mustard from the refrigerator door.

As the two of us made lunch for the three of us, we said very little. I wasn’t sure who was more uncomfortable, me or her. We just stood in the kitchen making sandwiches. A few minutes later, as I was putting something away, I pulled out the jar of pickle wedges and placed a spear on each plate. Elissa had put a bunch of barbeque-flavored potato chips, while I was messing around in the fridge.

I pulled out a can of Pepsi for me and a can of Sprite for her. I assumed that my dad would come out from his library to get his food. Elissa and I grabbed our lunches and sat down at the kitchen island.

We sat there eating for a little while before I decided to break the ice.

“Elissa, is something wrong?”

Elissa didn’t answer as she just stared at her plate and eating quietly. I inwardly groaned, got up from my stool, and walked over to her.

“Elissa,” I said softly, trying to get her to talk.

She just kept on ignoring me. I groaned again and said, “Elissa, we need to talk.”

She whipped her head over to me and said, “Talk? Talk about what?”

I sat down on the stool next to her and said, “Recent events, what else?”

“Oh, and here I was thinking that it had to do with our history project.”

“Elissa….”

“What do you want me to say, Zee? That I understand what’s going on? That I’m not afraid of what’s happening to you?”

I looked a bit sad during her rant. For some reason, my feelings felt a bit closer to the surface than they usually were. I could feel a tear start to form in my eye.

“Zee, I’m scared of what’s going on,” she said, continuing her rant. “First, there was that talent show accident and you don’t have that wound. Then, we were chased through the school by some loony who looked like the principal. Finally, your dad shows up to defend us and does something crazy to manipulate the bike rack into chaining up our attacker.”

I sniffled a bit, with a few tears in my eyes, as she laid out all of the events that had happened. I did agree with her that things were not at all like they should be. I shouldn’t have a body that is changing this rapidly, Dad shouldn’t have strange abilities that could make inanimate objects change shape and obey his commands, and we shouldn’t have been chased by some crazy person that could look like anything.

“Elissa,” I said, starting to cry, “I’m sorry that you got caught up in whatever this is. Nothing is making much sense, and….”

I broke down into tears, and I could feel Elissa reaching over and trying to comfort me.

“Zee,” she said softly, “I don’t blame you for any of this.”

I sniffled and cried some as I looked up into her face. She embraced me in a large comforting hug. It seemed to help me feel a little better.

“We will just try to get through it as best we can,” she continued. “And, I’ll be there with you every step of the way.”

I sniffled as the crying seemed to subside for the time being. I reciprocated the hug that Elissa gave me and whispered in her ear, “Thank you.”

“Aww, Zee,” she replied, handing me a paper towel to blow my nose in.

After I dabbed my eyes with the other end of the towel, she said to me, “C’mon, let’s go find your dad.”

I nodded and we both left our stools. I grabbed my dad’s plate, and the two of us walked down the hall to his study. As we walked, I couldn’t help but wonder what my dad wanted to talk about. I hoped that he was going to answer several of the questions that now weighed heavily on my mind.

Elissa and I entered the study a couple of minutes later. We both looked surprised when we saw that he wasn’t there. I set my dad’s lunch down on his desk, and Elissa said, “Well, where is he?”

“I don’t know. We know he didn’t leave, since the car is still here,” I replied.

“How do you know that?”

“The kitchen windows overlook the garage, remember?”

“Right…,” she said with realization. “So, where is he then?”

“Maybe in the bathroom?”

“Okay,” she said, taking a seat on the leather couch that my dad had by the window. I took a seat next to her a short time later.

The two of us began talking about our history project. Elissa had a few ideas, and I bounced them back to her. We had a good idea what we wanted to do for it. However, my mind was not on the project, not by a long shot.

I was starting to get a bit anxious as I just sat on the couch waiting for dad to get back from wherever he is. I think Elissa was starting to sense my anxiety, when she said, “I wonder if your dad is alright.”

“Me too,” I said.

“Do you think we should go look for him?”

I sighed and rested my head into my hands, with my elbows positioned on my knees. I thought to myself, ‘Why is my dad being so elusive?’

I rested my face in my hands, trying to figure out what to do next. I noticed that my hands seemed to be more delicate than I had remembered. The fingers were longer and so were my fingernails. My changing body was really starting to frustrate me. I didn’t have any clue into what I was becoming, but it still was bugging me.

I looked up from my hands and turned to look at Elissa. When I looked towards her, I noticed a crack of light coming from the bookcases.

“What’s that over there?” I asked, pointing.

“Hmm?” she replied.

The two of us got off of the couch and walked over to the bookcases. Between two of the bookcases, a tiny sliver of light was shining through what appeared to be a crack.

“Uhh…,” Elissa started, “something tells me that shouldn’t be there.”

I nodded and replied, “Oh yeah. I never saw this before.”

“Hey, one of the bookcases is extending farther than the others,” Elissa said, pointing it out.

“Let’s see if we can pull it out,” I suggested.

Elissa nodded and the two of us began to tug on the bookcase to try to pull it further out, like trying to free a jammed doorway. We pushed and pulled, and even tried using a wedge to force the door open, but nothing seemed to work.

We tried for a little while longer, eventually just collapsing to the ground tired.

“Your dad really knew how to wedge that bookshelf in,” Elissa said, breathing heavily.

“Yeah,” I replied, “it’s like it’s stuck that way.”

She nodded and walked around a bit, trying to catch her breath. I began looking at the books on the shelf, seeing if my dad left some kind of clue behind.

There were several kinds of books on that shelf. They ranged from works of fiction that featured magic in one way, shape, or form to books that dealt with magical superstitions through the ages. I was impressed with my dad’s collection, and wondered why they were all lining this bookcase that apparently also functioned as a doorway to some secret passage.

I looked through all the various titles that were on the shelf. My dad had several books that were recently published or several hundred years old. There were all seven of the Harry Potter books, 1001 Arabian Nights, The Lord of the Rings, the Sword of Truth series, and the Sword of Shannara series to name a few. As I perused the books, 1001 Arabian Nights caught my eye for some reason. It seemed to stand out from the other novels that surrounded it.

I pulled that title of the shelf and examined the red leather bound book. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it. I flipped through the pages, and noticed several titles within its pages. I was about to put the book back on the shelf, when I realized that this book was a collection of stories, whereas the others that stood next to it were all stand-alone novels in a series of books.

“Elissa,” I said, “I think I know how to get in there.”

“Oh?” she said, as she looked up at me. She was crouching on the ground to trying to find a hidden switch or lever on the bookcase’s frame.

“What if we need to say the magic words?”

“Magic words? Well, that does seem to fit, since your dad uses them quite often.”

I nodded. “Then, how about we take a page out of this book?”

I held up the Arabian Nights and she said, “You think the words are ‘Open sesame?’”

The bookcase didn’t budge when she said those words. I was hoping that those would be it.

Elissa huffed, “I didn’t think your dad would make it that easy.”

As Elissa headed back to the couch, I kept thinking about it. ‘Would Dad leave a clue lying around to opening this door?’

Arabian Nights stood out on that shelf against those other books. Ali Baba said those words to open the door to a magnificent treasure trove where the forty thieves kept all of their stolen goods. I thought of what my dad did against our attacker today, how he had said something and it pinned the attacker to the ground.

I snapped my fingers as I realized that my dad said what had happened backwards before it actually happened.

‘Maybe I need to say “open sesame” backwards to open this door,’ I thought to myself.

I looked at the bookcase and said, “Emases nepo.”

There was a low grinding sound as the bookcase opened up and revealing a passageway. Elissa turned around and looked wide-eyed as she saw the bookcase open.

“Okay,” she said, “I stand corrected.”

The hallway exposed by the bookcase looked like the other halls in the house. However, this one was illuminated by candlelight. I could see various pieces of artwork decorating the passage.

As I turned to go down the passageway to look for my dad, I looked at Elissa and said, “You coming?”

She turned around, headed over to me, and we started down the dimly lit hall. The hall was lit by rows of candles. It gave me a feeling that I was walking down an older mansion, or some kind of haunted house. The décor and the overall feel of the hall was different than walking along one of the other halls. Along this dark hallway, there were a few hall tables with strange objects on top of them. Elissa and I looked at them briefly and we couldn’t figure out what they were for. To us, they looked like simple items that you would find in various stores in the mall. Why they were just sitting out in this strange hall was beyond me.

“Creepy…,” Elissa said, as we walked down the hallway.

“You’re telling me,” I replied.

We continued down the hallway for a while, and I was beginning to wonder where my dad was at. It seemed like the hallway could continue on forever as we passed door after door.
After a few more minutes of walking I said to Elissa, “Do you hear something?”

“What?” she replied.

“Shhh…. Listen!” I whispered.

I cupped one of my ears to try to pick up what I heard again, it sounded like someone talking to someone on a phone. I thought, ‘But, there’s no sign of any electricity down here.’
Elissa broke my thought process again and whispered, “It sounds like it’s coming from a few doors down.”

The two of us took off at a jog, but we stopped short when we came to the first intersection that we had seen throughout this entire mysterious corridor.

“It figures,” Elissa started, “we get a clue and then a curveball is thrown our way.”

I rolled my eyes and told her to be quiet. We listened hard for what seemed like hours, and then we heard the voice again, louder and closer than before.

“It’s coming from the middle path,” I whispered, as we started down it.

We didn’t get very far when we saw a light coming from a crack in the doorway. As I was about to open the door, Elissa put her hand on my shoulder and whispered, “Don’t you want to find out who he’s talking to?”

I thought it over for a few seconds. She did have a point. Who was he talking to that he couldn’t use the phones in the house proper? We leaned next to the wall next to the door and listened to his conversation.

“Why did you go and let her do that in the first place?” a female voice yelled.

“I didn’t think she would get hurt doing it. It’s a simple trick,” my dad replied.

“Simple to you, yes. But, to her?”

“She was learning my tricks well enough. I thought that she could handle it.”

“I didn’t say she couldn’t handle learning your illusions, only that you should’ve been more careful.”

“Careful about what?”

“Careful about letting a troublesome audience member getting that close to sabotage your daughter’s trick!”

Elissa and I glanced at each other and we both had a look of surprise on our faces. We both thought that my dad was talking about Elissa. But, from the sounds of it, he and whomever he was talking to was talking about me! But, I wasn’t a girl! However, there was another thought in the back of my mind. That other voice sounded familiar somehow. Like out of a dream or a distant memory.

“Cindy, I couldn’t even begin to predict something like that would happen,” my dad said, reassuredly. “But, now that they have become active, the true form is emerging.”
‘True form?’ I thought, ‘What was he talking about?’

“I wish you the best of luck in helping her through it then. I’m still working on the curse that was placed upon her that forced us to go into hiding.”

“Want to switch jobs?”

The other voice giggled. “Nice try, John. Keep a closer eye on her. I doubt that’ll be the last assassin after her. I’ll be in touch. Best of luck to you.”

“Thanks, Sin,” my father replied glumly. He then said, “Ffo rorrim.”

The door began to creak open and I could hear my father sigh deeply. Whatever was going on was definitely weighing heavily on him.

“What am I going to tell her?” my father said to himself, not watching where he was going.

He managed to walk straight into me. He only staggered around, but I got nearly knocked to my feet.

“Uhh…, hi Dad,” I said, trying to look innocent.

“Zee! How did you–,” he stammered. “Ugh! Never mind.”

“Dad, what was that conversation all about?”

“What conversation?” he said, trying to look like he didn’t know what I was talking about.

“With that woman? Is she in there?” I said, looking into the room.

However, when I looked inside, all I saw was a large full-length mirror staring back at me. The wall had a couple of lit torches, but, for the most part, that was it for this room.

“Dad, what’s going on?” I said, now starting to freak out.

“Zane, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Something?” I said, skeptical.

“Okay, a lot of somethings, and in the library.”

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

We walked back into my dad’s library a few minutes later, Elissa went and grabbed the two of us some water, while my dad grabbed his lunch and sat down in the armchair across from the couch. I looked at my dad, as he sat there and ate his sandwich. He didn’t want to start explaining anything until Elissa got back with the water. I didn’t argue with him. I wanted her here to lean on for some support.

“Good sandwich,” my dad said, after swallowing a good bite.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“Dad?” I asked after a moment of silence, “what’s going on?”

Elissa at that moment, walked in the room carrying a few glasses and the Brita pitcher of water from the refrigerator. I thought that was a good move by her, since I’m sure that this was one talk that was going to take a while.

My dad finished his sandwich, set the plate down on the coffee table, sighed, and then said, “I guess I had better start at the beginning.”

I nodded, but didn’t say anything since I wanted to hear it all.

“It begins with your heritage,” he started. “Your mother and I are both members of a nearly dead species, the Homo magi.”

“The Homo magi?” Elissa interrupted, “what are they?”

“The magi are a breed of humans that have evolved alongside humanity after being exposed to the wild forces of magic. We have the ability to tap into magic in a variety of ways and use its energy to our wishes, to a limited extent. We were nearly wiped out millennia ago.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“No one knows for certain. Most of that legend has been lost to time. I’ve been trying to piece it together, with little success. But, that’s a story for another day. The original point was that you are also a member of this race. You can tap into the magical energies that permeate this world.”

“Seriously? That’s crazy. I’m an ordinary human like anyone else.”

“Are you?” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Last time that I checked, humans don’t spontaneously grow nine inches in a two-day span.”

“He has a point, Zee,” Elissa interjected.

“Okay, so I’m not exactly human. Then, why am I changing like this?”

“Because, your mother and I cast a spell on you to seal your powers away until they were needed.”

“But, that shouldn’t have any physical transformation.”

“It does when we also hid your true form away along with them.”

“True form?” I said with a great deal of skepticism and surprise. “Dad, what are you talking about?”

“Zane,” he said, with a huff. “You are not my son, you are actually my daughter, Zatanna.”

“WHAT?!?!” I yelled, jumping to my feet.

“Calm down, Zee. Let the man talk,” Elissa said, grabbing my arm.

I was wondering why she was acting so calm. Her world was changing along with mine, although to a lesser degree. But, she had a caring, sympathetic look on her face as she held my arm. I sat back down onto the couch and let my dad continue his tale.

“Zatanna, we did this to hide your abilities from the world. There are a number of mystical forces in this world that would try to use you and your magic for their own ends. Your mother and I could not allow that.”

“Then where is my mother?” I asked, heatedly.

“Somewhere with the Hidden Ones, I don’t know. She does send all her love, though.”

“You’re talking with her?!”

“I believe you overheard some of the conversation I had with her, earlier.”

“That was…my…mom,” I said, tears starting to form.

“Yes, it was.”

I couldn’t believe that I had actually heard my mom’s voice. That’s why the voice had sounded so familiar! Also, could some of my tendencies lately have come from me being a girl underneath my parent’s disguise?

“Can I see her?” I asked nervously.

My father shook his head sadly. “No, since there was another reason for your disguise.”

“What?” I said, with tears starting to form in my eyes.

“When you were a young, we don’t know who, but someone placed a curse upon you.”

“A curse?”

My father nodded. “So far, we only know what the curse does. If you and your mother should ever look at one another in the flesh, then both of you will die.”

Elissa gasped and my mouth just dropped open.

“That’s just not right!” Elissa exclaimed. “Who would want to do such a thing?”

My father simply shook his head in grief and said, “We don’t know. But, we think that they were hoping that no motherly influence would affect your development, which is why we had to turn you into a boy and forcing you to become our son, Zane.”

Tears welled up in my eyes and I broke down sobbing. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My feelings were all jumbled up with sadness and anger being the most dominant. I was feeling sadness since I couldn’t see my mother, whom I probably haven’t since I was a baby. The anger was stemming from the restrictions that I couldn’t see her, and that most of my life had been a lie, for my own protection.

“Zee,” Elissa said softly, trying to comfort me.

I grabbed her hand that she had placed on my shoulder and held it tightly. I tried to rein my feelings in, but it was just too much at the moment. I just felt like I wanted to be left alone, but for some reason I had to know more.

“Is there anything else, Dad?” I said through the sobs.

“Yes, you’re going to start to learn how to control your magical abilities, starting tomorrow.”

“So soon? Why?”

“Haven’t you noticed that pieces of your disguise are falling away, instead of all at once?”

“He’s got you there, Zee,” Elissa said jokingly.

“Also, I’m betting that since it has accelerated to an extent that some of your magic went off during that run-in.”

I nodded at that, there were a few things that happened that couldn’t be easily explained.

“I guess that means you won’t have an easy Sunday, huh?” Elissa quipped.

I smiled at her, and she added, “Well, no matter what happens, I will be with you, Zee.”

“Thanks, Elissa,” I replied, giving her a big hug.

“Elissa, I need to swear you to secrecy. You cannot reveal Zatanna’s true nature to anyone who doesn’t already know about it.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she answered. “I’d rather die than betray my best friend.”

I saw my dad nod, but I was touched that she would do that for me. It just brought a little warmth and happiness to me, helping to douse the anger and grief that I felt. I saw my dad chant something under his breath, and for a few seconds it seemed that he and Elissa were glowing. It lasted only a few seconds, but something did happen.

“Uhh…,” I said. “What just happened?”

“Elissa is now magically sworn to secrecy. She can’t forcibly break her word now.”

“Okay, but who would want to take advantage of me and why?”

“I don’t know, but I will try to find out. Now, why don’t you two go and have some fun. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow.”

 
 
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 fourth part of Zee's story. It's an interesting chapter, with a little bit of action. A very big thanks to my editor and beta readers for helping with the edits.

Chapter 4

I tried to clear my mind of all distracting thoughts. It was a little difficult to do, since I was still trying to process everything that Dad had told me yesterday. It was difficult to get used to the fact that everything I had known was not as it appeared to be. However, I was doing the best I could under the circumstances.

My dad was having me practice mediation at the moment. He taught me the basics of meditation last night after his great reveal about me and what was going on. He told me that clearing my mind would be able to help enhance my focus, something he tells me that is crucial for practicing my magic. I was a little frustrated that he still hasn’t told me much about it, so that was one of the things on my mind.

One of the other things on my mind was how my body felt weird. I don’t know how to describe it, but it definitely felt out of whack. It probably had something to deal with the fact that I still had mixed gender parts. How would you feel if distinct pieces of you were one gender, while others were the other? I was still confused about why my former form was slowly peeling away.

Elissa guessed that the more I used my magic, the more of my true form would be revealed. She said that it didn’t start until that chase through the school. I think she may have been right, but I think it started the night of the talent show.

I snapped my mind back to try to clear my thoughts again, opening my eyes for a brief moment. Everything around me in the room was floating about a foot off the ground! I immediately started to worry, when I heard things crashing to the floor, including myself. Opening my eyes, I was lucky that nothing ended up breaking; although, my butt definitely felt sore. I didn’t realize that I was floating in the air, either.

As I wondering if anyone had heard the loud crash that was issued by everything falling to ground, I began to pick everything up and tried to put them back to the way they were. As I grabbed my computer games, and tried to reorient the stack, I laughed. I looked around the room and laughed again as I noticed that my room still looked like it belonged to a boy. I shook my head and just tried putting things back to the way they were.

I figured that one day soon most of my stuff would be swapped out for items that belonged in a teenage girl’s room rather than a teenage boy’s. I felt a bit sad, seeing that the life I had known was slipping away, piece by piece. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel a little excitement at the prospect of gaining magical powers. I wasn’t sure when the day of my final change would come, though I was betting on Elissa having a field day when we would have to go shopping for the new things that I would need.

I felt my face flush with embarrassment at the thought of being dragged from store to store picking up things that I would need. I thought to myself, ‘A female teenager being dragged around from store to store getting things that she should have been steadily getting through her life.’ That idea seemed better suited for a primetime comedy than a real life drama.
After I had finished putting my things back into some semblance of order, I felt a tickle in my throat. Instinctively, I coughed to try to clear it. I guessed that my throat wasn’t hydrated enough during the time I spent meditating.

‘Strange, I thought that my saliva trickling down would be enough, since my dad said that it was similar to just being quiet in class,’ I thought to myself.

I cleared my throat again, and began to change out of my pajamas. It was definitely a lot trickier to do now. The pajama pants that I typically wore were more like capris with how they felt, now. My legs were a lot longer, and it was definitely a challenge to find anything that fit me.

I managed to find some shorts that still fit me, even though my now longer legs were going to be cold with so much skin exposed to the elements that what I was used to. I was wondering how tall I was; thus, I went over to my backpack, pulling out a pencil and a ruler.

Heading over to the door frame, I stood up straight and marked off how tall I was with the pencil. Then measuring with the ruler, I was amazed that I now stood five foot and nine inches tall. I was astounded that I had picked up at least twelve inches from my original height. I always wanted to be taller, so this just added to my happiness. Although, as I thought about it, I was probably going to end up costing Dad a lot of money with the new wardrobe I was going to be needing.

I sighed as a began to realize what else was in store for me, becoming who I was born to be rather than who I was appearing as. Though, I found myself wishing the rest of my boy form away from time to time.

After finding a large T-shirt, that now was a lot smaller on me, I made my way down for breakfast. It had been a very interesting night, thinking about everything that Dad had talked about. I just did my best at accepting what he told me and tried to move on from there. But, it definitely wasn’t easy. I mean, how often do you get told that your life is a lie?

My dad was in the kitchen buttering the toast when I walked in. He looked up at me and drowsily said, “Good morning.”

“Morning, dad,” I squeakily replied, and then tried to clear my throat again.

‘That was strange,’ I thought, ‘my voice hasn’t squeaked for years.’

“So, was your first meditation really that painful?” he quipped.

“Yea,” I replied, nursing my bony butt.

‘Was it just me, or did my voice sound higher?’ as I started to wonder if something else was going on.

I continued, “You didn’t warn me and all my stuff would leave the ground though.”

My father sipped some of his hot coffee before replying, “Yep, I probably should’ve warned you that self-levitation and possible levitation of the surrounding area could have happened while in a meditative state.”

I groaned. “Thanks for the warning. Maybe next time I’ll do it in another room.”

He nodded and sipped his coffee again. “Perhaps one of the other spare bedrooms.”

He yawned loudly and then sipped some more coffee. I had rarely seen my dad this tired. Something must be up with him if this was happening.

“Are you okay, Dad?” I asked, clearing my throat again when I thought I heard it squeak.

“Yea,” he said, with a note of uncertainty in his voice, “I’m just having a hard time waking up this morning.”

“Okay,” I stated warily, “but, you’re usually a morning person.”

“I guess I had a hard time sleeping last night, for some reason.”

“Would I be that reason, Dad?”

My dad nodded quickly before drinking more of his coffee. I gulped when he nodded, and cleared my throat again. Something was definitely changing about me, since I felt perfectly fine this morning.

I did feel off by putting my dad through a sleepless night though. Apologetically, I quickly added, “I’m sorry, Dad. I don’t know why all this is happening now, but I know we can get through this.”

I reached out my hand and grabbed his that was sitting on the counter top. He set down his coffee and grabbed my hand with his, looked me in the eye, and replied, “Thanks, Zee. I will do my best to teach you everything that I know.”

I giggled when he called me Zee. ‘I guess it’s the best name that can work for me at the moment, since I’m not exactly one gender or the other,’ I thought to myself with a smile.
As I went about fixing myself some breakfast, I had to clear my throat a couple more times. I was wondering what was going on when Elissa came in for breakfast. We had asked her parents if she could stay the night, and they saw no problem with it.

“Good morning,” she yawned, as she stretched out her body from the sleep before.

“Hey,” I replied.

“Morning,” my dad replied, sipping his coffee.

“What was with the loud bang this morning?” she asked, grabbing some of the toast that I had made.

“I was just meditating,” I replied. “Although, I didn’t know that me and everything would be off of the ground when doing it.”

“Well, next time a little forewarning would be appreciated.”

“I’ll try to remember that.”

As I was munching on my toast, Elissa was looking at me strangely, as if I had grown a second head or something. “Yes?” I asked, feeling like bacteria in a petri dish.

“Something’s different about you today, from yesterday,” she replied, looking at me to see if she can try to spot the difference.

“Oh? What’s that?”

“I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

She continued looking at me while she and I ate our breakfast, and while my dad read the morning paper.

Then, suddenly, she snapped her finger and exclaimed, “There’s something different about your throat!”

“My throat?” I nervously replied, and began feeling it over to see what she meant by that.

As I moved my hands over it, it felt a little more narrow than what I was used to, and there was only a minor bump across the front of my neck, not a larger one where my Adam’s apple should be.

“Your voice is higher!” she exclaimed again.

“You’re right! I was wondering what that tickle in my throat was.”

I thought to myself, as I ate my toast, ‘And another piece of Zane disappears.’

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

A few minutes later, my Dad folded up his newspaper and said to me, “After you and Elissa are done with breakfast, it’s time to start the next step in your magical training.”

“Oh? Is she going to learn some magic?” Elissa said excitedly.

I looked at him with eager anticipation. I was ready and willing to begin learning magic. Knowing that I would someday be able to perform the feat of magic that my dad did yesterday, only made me excited about studying magic. I had a really enthusiastic look plastered all over my face, ready to begin to understand what I could do.

“Not quite,” he replied.

That just deflated my excitement a few notches.

“What do you mean?” I replied.

“Well, before you can learn magic, you must learn how your magical energies can be channeled,” he explained. “For me, I simply speak what I want to happen backwards. Other magic users use made up words for various incantations or another language that they wouldn’t normally speak in public. What I want you to do is make a list of how you would want to say your spells.”

I sighed heavily and thought, ‘So much for making magic this morning.’

He continued, “After you have that, I want you to look up the words for the classical elements, since you need to have a good grasp on those before we continue on to more complex magics.”

“Looks like you have to start from somewhere, Zee,” Elissa commented.

I shot her a look and said, “Yeah, and you get to help me.”

“What?” she exclaimed.

“You always said you wanted to learn a new language. Anything that I don’t use you can,” I retorted, sticking my tongue out at her.

Elissa just shook her head and replied, “We’ll see.”

“I have many different language books in the library that you can use to search through, including a few books on cryptography, in case you want to code your words.”

“Zee! That could be interesting, talking in code to cast your spells!” Elissa called out.

I tapped my finger against my face and replied, “I believe it would be. Well, let’s finish breakfast and get looking!”

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

I don’t know how long we were at in the library looking at all the books my dad had on various languages and cryptography, but it seemed like an eternity. Elissa and I both looked tired of searching through all the books. There were three large stacks of books in the room.

The first stack was all the books that we hadn’t yet gone through. We pulled off every book we could find that had a foreign language or was about speaking in codes. That stack was a lot taller when we started our task. The second stack of books was of all the books we tossed out that I didn’t want to use for my magic. They were mostly some of the more common foreign languages, such as Spanish, French, and Mandarin.

The third stack of books contained all of my candidate languages. There were also a few speaking in code books mixed in there as well. I was interesting in speaking code, as well as a few of the older languages that I had picked out. In the short stack, there was one book on talking in code, as well as books on Greek, Latin, Celtic, Norse, and Coptic.
Most of these languages I had picked out were from my love of ancient civilizations and their mythologies. Coptic, as I had found out, is the most recent descendent of ancient Egyptian. I had loved watching “The Mummy” and its sequels, so that book was a must in the stack.

The Vikings were cool and I loved how they beat the Spanish to America by four hundred years. Although, some archaeologists were still debating on whether or not they actually had reached the continent.

Greek and Latin were musts, since I loved Greek mythology. The Greeks, in my opinion, were very clever when it came to dealing out various punishments for the people who offended the gods in some manner. Latin was picked out since the Romans pretty much took over the Greek mythos in some manner and that if I learned Latin, knowing French, Spanish, and Italian shouldn’t take too much effort.

Elissa looked over at me and took a huge sigh, “I think we just finished looking at all the language books in your library.”

I took a deep breath and replied, “Good, now we are going to have to put back everything except this little stack.”

I pointed to the small stack on my right that only six books in it.

“From so many to so few,” Elissa muttered under her breath as the two of us began to pick up our mess.

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

A couple of hours and good sandwich later, I had drawn up my list of words meaning fire, air, earth, and water. I had only picked them out from Greek, Celtic, and Norse. I also wrote them backwards like my dad does to cast his spells. I just did that on a whim, since I thought that maybe since we were family that it would work for me in a similar manner.
Elissa looked anxious and excited, even more than I was. I think she was just excited about seeing real magic, even though I was the one who would be trying to use it. I guess she was figuring that illusions were nice, but the real deal would be better. I was feeling very nervous. I was betting that a lot could go wrong if I did something wrong, since magic seemed like it could be very unpredictable.

We headed out the kitchen door after lunch, and I had my list in hand. My dad had set up a spell circle outside in the woods. He made told me that he made sure that he respected how nature preserved the clearing within the woods. Dad and I were both Wiccans, which now knowing that we were both spellcasters, made sense. But, being at one with nature and believing in the Triple Goddess, was more than just magic to me. It helped me in defining a spiritual path that my soul was to take, magical or not.

Elissa and I trudged along the path through the foliage to the spell circle where my dad was waiting. The spell circle would serve as a place that I could practice magic outside and not worry about effecting the surrounding environment. He also told me that there was a more advanced circle in the house that he would show me when I was ready.

Dressed in simple clothes, I felt like the bugs would have an easy target if they decided to come after me. My clothes were also loose on me, since using my own magic would probably accelerate the removal of the Zane “skin” from me. As we walked, it felt like my nerves were intensifying as we drew closer to the circle. When we got there, I saw that my dad had laid out five stones in the shape of a pentagram. Upon seeing that, I was now beginning to wonder how much of my magic was related to Wicca or if it was something else.

I saw him sitting there on a large rock nearby, dressed in exercise clothes. I thought that it was not much stranger than what I was currently wearing. He was sitting very still, almost like he was meditating. I glanced at his eyes and they were closed. I hope he hadn’t fallen asleep. My dad said that meditation was critical to practicing and perfecting spellcraft. So, I was guessing that practicing magic was no different than practicing any other kind of physical activity.

“Are you ready to begin?” my dad asked, not moving from his position or even opening his eyes.

Elissa jumped, thinking that my dad couldn’t perceive the two of us arriving at the glade. He got up from his spot off the rock and apologized, “Sorry for startling you, Elissa.”

Elissa held her hand across her heart and was breathing heavily. “It’s okay, Mr. Zatara.” She added sarcastically, “Thanks for getting my blood pumping.”

“Don’t mention it,” my dad replied. He looked over at me and said, “Do you have your list ready?”

I nodded, and said, “Yup, picked out my top four preferences.”

“Good, did you have a good feeling about those?”

“Yea, they were from a few cultures that I have been interested in for a while.”

My dad nodded, and then instructed me to stand in the center of the penticle. He told Elissa to sit on the rock so she can watch, and try to remain quiet so that I could concentrate. He had also set up a candle, a fan, a water wheel, and a small rock on the far side of the clearing.

“What I want you to do now, since you have four different languages chosen with the four elements picked out and some operative words, is to choose one set for each of the elements.”

“Why one set for each?”

“So, we can see which of them produces the best results, to narrow down which tongue you should use for your spellcasting.”

“Makes sense,” I replied, in a low tone.

“When you’re ready, focus on what you want your magic to do, and it will do what you tell it to do,” my dad added.

I glanced through the list of possibilities, with a verb that went along each element. Each of the sixteen possibilities was there, four different languages for the four elements. I circled each of my choices, and then set the sheet of paper down before me.

Concentrating hard, I focused on the small rock. I was focusing on trying to crush that rock to gravel. I tried to envision in my mind's eye the small rock breaking apart into smaller pieces and those pieces then falling away to the ground. I pictured the words that I had chosen for the manipulation of the rock and earth. I began to say the words under my breath, to get a feel for them, and then I said, in the Celtic language, “Crush the rock.”

To my amazement, I saw the rock move hover in the air for a little bit and then saw some cracks starting to form around it. The cracks deepened a little bit as I saw some dust fall away from the rock from where it was beginning to break up.

A few seconds later, the rock fell to the ground and shattered even more. I felt a bit woozy after the rock hit the ground. I shook my head quickly to ward it off.

“Well, that was something,” Elissa said, with a note of sarcasm in her voice.

“What did you expect, a bunch of fireworks?” I retorted.

“Well…, yeah, I guess I did.”

“Elissa, Zatanna is only a neophyte spell caster at the moment. She has the potential for firework-like magic, but she is still learning,” my dad stated. “The overall effect of the rock was good, I take you were trying to crush it?”

I nodded, while breathing a little more heavily than usual.

He nodded and then added, “All right, try another one and let’s see what happens.”

I looked down at my list and picked out the words I had chosen for the element of air. I focused my thoughts on the fan that was sitting next to the shattered rock. It was not moving in the slightest, as there was no breeze blowing through the forest clearing where we were at. I used my mind’s eye and imagined the fan blowing at full tilt in a strong gusty wind. Then, I opened my eyes and said clearly in the Norse tongue, “Wind blow through that fan.”

I looked around and didn’t see anything happen. I felt like that combination didn’t work, when I saw the leaves in the nearby trees rustle. I thought, ‘That’s odd. There was no wind before.’

I quickly shifted my gaze over to the fan, and I saw it slowly begin to move. I then felt a stronger breeze pick up, and began blowing through my hair. The fan began to move faster and faster, as I felt the cool breeze gain strength until it felt like a normal cooling breeze during the summer. The breeze kept blowing for a little while and then everything was calm once more. The fan began to slow down to a stop.

“That was a little cooler,” Elissa commented.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “But, why did it start out slow though?”

“Well, sometimes the wind does that. Don’t you notice it?”

“Not really, I guess I’d better pay more attention to my surroundings.”

Elissa nodded. My dad said, “It was a good attempt, now I want you to try to manipulate the water.”

“The water now?” I rolled my eyes, “This should be fun.”

I sighed deeply, and tried to clear my mind again. It was a little more difficult this time, as I was getting a bit frustrated at my dad’s comments. It was as if he was being impartial about my attempts at magic, and not as supporting as I had known him when I was learning his illusions. There was something strange going on with my dad, and I wanted to know what.

I tried putting those thoughts out of my head and focusing on the water before me. There was water sitting in a small bucket on the ground. There was a water wheel positioned above the bucket, which led from an empty tub where the water had originally been. My guess is that my dad wanted me to move the water back to where it had come from.

I concentrated on the water, and trying to visualize water leaving the bucket and heading back into the tub. I tried to see the water moving up through the water wheel. I opened my eyes slowly, and in the Greek language I said, “Water into the tub.”

Slowly, I saw the wheel begin to turn, and small waves begin to form in the bucket. The water then began a slow ascent into the water wheel and back into the tub. I thought that I had done a good job with that task and then I felt something on my head. I put my hand up there to see what it could be. It felt wet to the touch.

‘Odd,’ I thought, ‘it wasn’t supposed to rain today.’

I looked up into the sky and saw a bunch of clouds hang ominously overhead. Rain began to fall steadily as the water continued to make its way up into the tub from the bucket.

“Great, Zee. I wasn’t dressed for rain,” Elissa said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes at her and hoped that the rain wouldn’t last too long. Elissa and my dad tried to get out of the rain and under the eaves of the forest. However, about half a minute later, the rain stopped and the water was back in the tub, moving down into the bucket again. I now noticed the small hole in the tube that the water could flow through into the bucket. My guess was that my dad wanted the water to go back through the hole into the tub.

“That was definitely unexpected,” my dad said, returning to his spot on the damp rock. “What did you say?”

“I said, ‘Water into the tub.’”

“Great job, Zee,” Elissa retorted. “But why did it rain?”

“My guess is that Zee wasn’t focused on which water was to go into the tub,” my dad surmised.

“I guess so,” I replied disappointingly.

“Next time, focus on the specific source that you are moving things from and into.”

I nodded and then replied, “Time for the fire then?”

He nodded and let me make my attempt. I thought I had heard a gasp coming from them, but I shrugged it off, intent on lighting that candle. There was only one set of words left on the page, and I already knew those without even having to look at them. I focused on the candle, the remaining object to be used. I saw in my mind’s eye the candle wick igniting with fire. That fire was burning hot and bright. I opened my eyes, and said backwards, “Light the fire on the rock!”

The candle lit almost instantaneously. I was surprised that it happened so fast that I didn’t realize that the fire was burning tall and high. I watched it closely, hoping that it didn’t leave the candle. The flame burned tall for about a minute, before it calmed down and was burning like a normal candle.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the candle fire didn’t get out of hand. Just then, sparks flew off the nearby rocks and fire lit on them.

“Whoa!” I shouted, jumping back quickly.

Elissa and my dad both jumped back as well as the rocks lit up with fire.

“What happened?” asked Elissa.

“I’m…I’m…I’m not sure,” my dad stammered.

“What am I supposed to do?!?” I yelled.

“Put it out!” Elissa yelled.

I tried thinking hard about how to put it out. I looked over at the water tub and bucket, but the flames were blocking my way. I tried to figure out until I realized that I can manipulate the water to put out the flames.

I quickly said backwards, “Water put the fire out!”

The water leaped out of its containers and splashed out against the rocks. The fire was put out quickly. I collapsed down to the ground, feeling exhausted.

“Quick thinking,” my dad said, coming over to me.

“Thanks,” I said, panting.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, Dad. I’m fine,” I replied, still sounding out of breath.

“Why don’t you head back inside and take a break. Using your magic consciously for the first time can be taxing on the energy of the person.”

I nodded, and struggled to get to my feet. Elissa ran over and let me lean on her as we made our back to the house. As I looked back at the spell circle, I saw my dad was trying to pick up the pieces of my mess. I felt bad that I let my magic get out of control. I knew that I was going to have to work on that, but at the moment, I wanted to lie down and rest. As we headed into the house, I could feel myself losing consciousness.

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

A few hours later, I woke up from my bed. Although I didn’t exactly remember how I got there. The last thing I remembered was feeling very tired, and being led back into the house. As I sat up on my bed, I felt refreshed, even more than from a good night’s sleep.

I got off my bed and headed over to the bathroom to wash up. I thought something seemed off when as I walked over there, but I couldn’t quite place my finger on it. Flicking on the light switch, I gasped when I saw my reflection in the mirror.

Looking back at me in the mirror was a very pretty black-haired girl of sixteen years. Her long black hair went all the way down her back. The once loose shirt was now much tighter, as her new breasts had shrunk the space in the shirt. The shorts now were missing a bulge that was there only a few hours before. They also were tighter around the hips now that they had arrived, along with the larger butt.

I thought to myself, ‘Zane is now gone. Zatanna has arrived.’

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

Author’s note: Please leave comments at the the bottom of the story. I will appreciate anything you have to say or ask about the story. It doesn’t have to be long and involved, I would just like your reaction to the story. Thanks, your feedback helps!

 
 
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 fifth part of Zee's story. It's mostly a filler chapter. A very big thanks to my editor and beta readers for helping with the edits.

Chapter 5
Sunday was here before I knew it. I had spent most of the night lying awake in bed thinking about everything, since I couldn’t fall asleep due to my energy level being high after waking up and seeing the final results of the transformation. I thought about the conversation I overheard between my parents. That was really bugging me for some reason.

Why would my mother not bother to talk with me? Why was she hiding from me? What was this curse they spoke of, and why was it placed on me? Would I be able to remove it? Why did my dad not bother to tell me the truth until this chain of events started? I had so many questions that needed answering.

And then I thought about the magic training session today. If the spell circle my dad had made was supposed to contain my powers, why did they get so out of hand? The wind blew through the neighboring trees when I tried to manipulate the air, and the fire got loose and set fire to the neighboring rocks when I was experimenting with the fire. There was something else going on, since my dad said that my magic shouldn’t have affected the surrounding environment.

Also, there was the question of who that assassin was who attacked Elissa and me the other day. What was his role in this? And who was he working for? There were just so many questions that needed answering, and I didn’t know how I was going to answer them, but I was determined to do so.

I rolled over and glanced at the digital clock on my nightstand. It read half past six. It was still dark out, due to Daylight Savings Time. I rolled back onto my back and gazed up at the ceiling, lost in thought.

As daylight crept into my window, I slowly sat up on my bed and decided to check my email and other things on the internet. I felt like killing some time this morning before breakfast and I haven’t had the time to check it since Friday night.

My email was littered with Facebook messages from various friends who were impressed with the magic show that I performed during the talent show. ‘If they only knew those were just tricks,’ I snickered to myself. There were also a few “Get well soon!” messages mixed in. I thought those were nice, but again thought, ‘If they only knew….’

A rapping noise came from my door.

“Zee! Are you awake yet? You’ve been asleep for nearly sixteen hours!” I heard Elissa shout from behind my door.

I surmised that she must’ve spent the night again. However, I was now starting to wonder why her parents were letting her do that. I closed the Firefox browser and opened the door.

“I’ve been up for hours, Elissa,” I replied.

Elissa gasped when she saw what I now looked like. She then started giggling after looking me over.

“What?”

“Nice pajamas, they sure don’t leave anything to the imagination.”

I looked down and realized that my once-too large night shirt was now too short.

“Eeep!” I tried pulling down the shirt to cover my loose boxer shorts.

“Clothes today,” Elissa said assertively.

“You’re kidding, right? I hate clothes shopping.”

“Oh, yes, I’m very sure. Besides, you don’t have anything to wear now.”

“Uhh…,” I started before I closed my mouth, realizing that she was right. “Then, how am I going to get some clothes to go clothes shopping? Hmm…?”

“Simple, we’ll go to the Goodwill, or I'll go get something for you to borrow,” she slyly said, heading back to her room to change her own clothes.

“Oh, great…,” I replied, heading back to my computer.

I flipped the Internet back on again, but didn’t get very far since Elissa quickly reentered the room with a tape measure.

“What are you doing with that?” I said nervously.

“What do you think? Since you can’t go out to get clothes in your current state, I’m going to do it for you.”

Snapping the tape measure, she added, “Now, hold still.”

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

After being measured every which way by Elissa, she jotted down my measurements on a piece of paper so we could go find some clothes that would actually fit me comfortably. Before we went out though, she dashed off to her house to take care of something. She didn’t tell me what it was, but she did say that it was important for what we were going to be doing.

I sighed, and thought, ‘Must be a girl thing. Great…, something for me to look forward to.’

I may now have a girl’s body, but my mind was still male. Although, I had a hunch that Elissa was going to do her best to work on feminizing my mind to an extent. I did know that she would least try to teach me how to act like one.

I managed to down some breakfast quickly, before sneaking back up to my room. I had no intention of letting my dad see the way I was dressed right now. I may be his offspring, but that doesn’t mean he can look at me unintentionally showing off. Besides, I’d have a hunch that he would flip out if he did see me. I heard another rap on my door, Elissa’s knock from before, and I went to go open it. She quickly rushed into the room with a large plastic bag.

“Shut the door, you don’t want to put on a show,” she ordered.

I obliged and then looked at her with wonder, “What are you doing?”

“Letting you borrow some of my loose fitting clothes so we can go out,” she said, tossing me a sports bra.

“Uhh, Elissa…,” I said examining the garment, “I’m not sure this will fit.”

“What do you mean? You look like we’re both the same size up top,” she said, with a baggy shirt and a pair of yoga pants draped over her arm.

I turned around to take my night shirt off. When Elissa saw what I was doing she giggled a lot.

“What are you afraid of, Zee? We’re both girls here.”

I managed to squeeze into the sports bra and turned around for the yoga pants. I thought, ‘Why did my breasts have to be this big?’

Elissa must’ve been thinking along similar lines when she retorted, “Whoa! I didn’t realize you were that big up top.”

I felt a lot of blood rush to my face. I didn’t know if I should feel embarrassed or proud of that.

“Looks like we’re going to have to spend a good deal of time getting you measured when we hit Victoria’s Secret,” she added, handing me the other clothes.

I flushed again, thinking how that was one place I wouldn’t have been caught dead in last week.

“And, we're also going to have to hit JCPenney and a shoe store, and probably a lot of other stores in the mall,” Elissa continued.

“A lot of stores?” I said alarmed. “Just how many are we talking about here?”

“Six or seven,” Elissa replied, shrugging.

“Oh, boy,” I replied with sarcasm, “It definitely sounds like it's going to be a fun day.”

Elissa looked at me with an evil gleam in her eye, and stated, “Oh, yes. It most certainly will be.”

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

After I was dressed somewhat decently in Elissa's clothes, we made our way downstairs to tell my dad that I needed to go get some clothes in town. He knew that we had no women's clothes in the house, and Elissa's clothes were feeling snug on me. Elissa was very excited to be going shopping, since I needed to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” my dad’s said in a disapproving tone, just as we hit the bottom of the landing.

“Shopping,” Elissa replied.

“You’re not going out dressed like that!” my dad said pointedly.

“And how should I go? Last time I checked, we don’t have any women’s clothes in the house,” I calmly replied.

“Elissa, do you have anything that Zee could borrow?” my dad said, turning to her.

“Ummm…, she already is.”

My dad face palmed himself and sighed, “Oh, why isn’t your mother here to help you?”

“Yeah,” I pressed on, “where is Mom?”

“Never mind about that. Do you have your cell phone on you, since I can’t really say no to you going shopping for some decent clothes.”

“Yes, Dad,” I replied taking it out of my pocket and showing him, along with my wallet.

“Do you have enough money to buy everything?”

“Uhh…, no?” I replied.

My father sighed deeply, muttered something under his breath, and then started pacing for a bit.

“Dad? Can I borrow your credit card?” I asked a few moments later.

Before my dad could answer, there was a loud knock at the door. My dad walked over to go answer it. Elissa and I both looked to see who it was. On the front porch, just outside of the doorway were two guys dressed in suits. They looked very imposing and like these were two people you messed around with only if you had a death wish.

“Mr. Zatara,” the first one spoke.

The guy who spoke wore a fedora, a brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and was definitely pulling off an Indiana Jones type vibe. The second guy wore dark sunglasses, and a very crisp black suit. He also sported a completely shaved head.

“Yes?”

“My name is Mr. Teller, this is Mr. Penn. We work for SoM,” he stated in a government monotonic, imposing voice.

“Ah, I was wondering when you would show up. Please have a seat in the living room.”

My father showed them towards the couch, and both of them nodded in thanks.

“Zee, Elissa, please join us,” my father said, before disappearing into the room.

We cautiously walked into the room and took a seat on one of the armchairs. My father took the other chair, while the two government goons sat down on the chair.

“You mean the Penn and Teller?” Elissa asked, looking at them.

The two men didn’t look like they had much of a sense of humor.

One of them said dryly, “No relation.”

I thought, ‘Well, at least it wasn’t Scully and Mulder.’

“Mr. Zatara,” said Penn, “we’ve come here due to the prearranged conditions that you laid out for us several years ago.”

“Prearranged conditions?” I asked.

Teller and Penn just ignored me and Teller continued, “We are here because you said you will need a new identity for….”

Penn pulled out a small spiral-bound notebook and finished, “One Zane Zatara, your son. Where is he since he should be included in this meeting?”

I hesitantly raised my hand and said, “Umm… that was me.”

Both Penn and Teller looked at me with interest and Teller said, “Was?”

“Yeah…,” I said embarrassedly.

Penn calmly asked, “Okay, then. Would you care to explain how this came about?”

I gave him the Cliffs Notes version of how I became Zatanna. I thought to myself, ‘If he wants the details he can get them from my father who knows all about this.’

During my explanation, Penn and Teller just silently nodded every so often during my explanation. When I was finished, Teller said, “Well, Miss Zatara, it seems that the personal account that your parents had set up for you is going to need to be activated.”

“Personal account?” I asked confused.

“Yes, in the event of one of several different scenarios taking place, your account was to become active and turned over to you. The account is to provide you with a new identity and stipend to aid you in any and all financial burdens that you may encounter.”

“What? Just like that, a new identity and money?” I asked.

“The identity is no problem to take care of, and it will make Zatanna Zatara just as real, and maybe even more than Zane Zatara was,”

Penn said. “The money, however, will be released to you gradually, to avoid a teenage spending spree.”

“Makes sense,” Elissa commented. “Will she have enough to get a new wardrobe today?”

“Yes, she will have five thousand dollars to start with, with a couple thousand dollar payments to begin in January.”

“Sweet!” Elissa cheered. “We can definitely get everything you will need to look your best for school tomorrow without too much trouble.”

“Oh, I’m so thrilled,” I replied reluctantly.

I still wasn’t looking forward to shopping, even though I now didn’t need to use my dad’s credit card to pay for everything.

“So, are there any other questions?” Penn asked, as he and Teller both took to their feet.

“Yes, I have one. Who do you work for? The government?”

“We work for the same organization that your father belongs to, the Sentinels of Magic.”

“The Sentinels of Magic?” I asked. “Who are they?”

“I think we’d best let your father tell you about that, since he was a founding member of the group.” Teller said.

Before I could ask my dad about that Penn stated, “Here are your account and new identification cards.” He reached into his suit jacket and produced a small manila envelope.

I opened it, and saw all of the legal documents that I had under Zane’s name now reflected Zatanna instead.

“Damn, no driver’s license,” I said sullenly.

“You’re not sixteen yet,” my father said. “But, we still can go get it on your birthday. I did make that promise to you, and I will honor it.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Well, I think that we had best be going,” Penn commented.

“Indeed, good luck, Miss Zatara,” Teller said, tipping his hat.

The two of them left quickly and I was left staring at my dad with even more questions.

“Well, I think you two had better go shopping before it gets too late. You go and have fun.”

My father left the living room quickly, and reentered his study. He emerged a few minutes later with the car keys in his hand.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

I was left flabbergasted as my dad, seemed to reverse his stance so quickly.

“Weren't you against this?” I asked.

“Yes, but seeing as you need clothes for school, I will take you and Elissa shopping. It also makes sense, since neither one of you can drive yet.”

“Okay...,” I pondered.

“Also, I can keep a discreet distance to let the two of you shop.”

“Hmm...,” I still mused.

For some reason, I thought my dad was up to something. He had been acting suspiciously for the past couple of days, when all of this had started.

“What are you up to, Dad?”

He sighed heavily and replied, “I just want to be close by in case something happens to you. I don't want a repeat of yesterday.”

“Thanks, Dad.” I replied.

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

We hit the Sausalito mall about half an hour later. As soon as we were out of the car and into the mall, Elissa grabbed hold of my arm and started dragging me to the nearest clothing store. My dad followed behind at a good distance, but he managed to keep his eye on the two of us.

Our first stop was, no surprise, Victoria’s Secret. I groaned loudly when we entered the store. Elissa could feel my hesitation as I was trying to pull my arm back.

“Relax, Zee. You have nothing to be afraid of here. Plus, this is a necessary first stop to help make you feel a bit more comfortable and will help when get you try on some new street clothes.”

“How?” I asked, completely bewildered.

“Well, you can't feel comfortable without feeling comfortable everywhere, now can you?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I reluctantly agreed.

“Good, now let's see if I can find someone to help measure you to be fitted,” she asserted.

“Fitted?” I said shocked.

“Yup, we have to get the best fit for you.”

I groaned again as she led me to the counter. She found someone to help us out, and a short time later, I found out my measurements. Elissa and I were both surprised when we found out that I was a 36 DD in my bust! I think Elissa was also jealous of how big they were, too. My waist was only 30 inches and my butt was 36 inches, too!

We picked up a good deal of underwear from the store, with me walking out in a new pastel blue bra and panties, underneath the clothes that Elissa was letting me borrow. We made our way to the next store, JCPenney.

Elissa raced around the women’s section pulling all sort of shirts, blouses, jeans, and skirts off the racks, and handing them to me and my dad.

“Elissa? What are you doing?”

“Picking out everything that you are going to need to create all sorts of different outfits. You need to have a wide variety, wearing the same thing for more than one day just doesn’t work anymore.”

I groaned again, and my dad simply smiled, and said, “She seems to be having fun.”

“Yeah, she is.”

“Well, what’s the matter with you? Do you think I’m enjoying this anymore than you are?”

“I would laugh if you were. It’s just…, you know I was never a fan of going clothes shopping.”

“True. But, try to have some fun, maybe Elissa will let you in on the secret of having fun while going clothes shopping.”

I giggled at that. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Elissa came back with the last of the clothes that she had picked out. “There that should be good for now.”

“That’s a relief. Now, can we go buy all of these?” I said, sounding like I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could.

“No, silly. First, you have to go try them on, and anything you don’t want we can just leave off to one side. Everything else, we’ll buy.”

I groaned again, as Elissa led me to the women’s changing room. She started taking the blouses and the shorts, and began mixing and matching various things for what seemed like hours. She also mixed in the jeans and the skirts. During each of the outfit’s tryouts, she had me try to walk like a model and turn around before she either passed judgment or wanted me to change one clothing piece out for another.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, we settled on my wardrobe. I walked out of the department store wearing a purple spaghetti strap top with a pair of white jeans. Although, my flip-flops were really starting to kill me now.

Elissa took notice, and dragged me off to the nearest shoe store. We left there with at least two pairs of sandals, two pairs of sneakers, and two pairs of three inch heels. I ended up wearing a pair of white sneakers out of the store.

We ended up making several trips between the mall and the car, which helped to break my new shoes in. It also helped to make me feel a little more comfortable in my new clothes. I had to admit it, wearing these clothes felt good and definitely better than any of my old clothes.

Just when I thought we were all done, Elissa dragged us over to the mall’s food court. This food court I liked better than the malls in San Francisco. This food court opened up to the outside so people could enjoy a sunny day in the Bay and do their shopping at the same time.

Elissa grabbed a Caesar salad, my dad picked up a salami sub sandwich, and I was craving a good juicy burger and fries. Elissa looked at me funny when she saw what I grabbed.

“What?” I asked, sipping some of my soda.

“Zee, you have to pay more attention to what you eat. It’s a lot easier for girls to become fat than guys.”

“Oh, fun.”

I was not happy about that. If I had to eat smaller portions and take out some of my favorite foods altogether, I wouldn’t be very happy to be around.

“That may not be necessary,” my father interrupted, after swallowing some of his sandwich. “The usage of her powers requires a lot of energy. What the body doesn’t need to sustain it goes to help fueling her magical powers.”

“Really? Sweet!”

“But, not all of the magical energy comes from what you eat.”

“Oh.”

“Still, you should be alright as long as you don’t overdo it.”

“Okay, dad.”

Elissa stared daggers at me. Clearly, she didn’t like the idea of me being able to eat what I want and not have to worry about it too much. As we enjoyed our meal, I noticed something odd. From the direction of San Francisco, a couple of horses and pigs came running through the streets.

“Now, there’s something you don’t see every day,” Elissa commented.

I saw a couple of people from Animal Control in their van race by to try to get a handle on the situation. ‘Probably just a few animals getting loose from a nearby ranch,’ I thought, returning to my meal.

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

After lunch, Elissa dragged me to some more stores. We ended up buying a couple of purses, a few accessories, makeup, and some jewelry. Then, she dragged me over and made me get my ears pierced for the earrings. Although, I did like the gold studs they put in my ears until I could take them out for another pair of earrings. We also stopped by a got me some of the unmentionables, Elissa assured me that she would be there to help me out when my monthly visitor came a knocking on my door. I was not looking forward to that.

It was five o’clock in the evening when we managed to get back home, and nearly six once we swapped everything out of my room. Also, I discovered that my dad made a few calls on his cell to get me a few pieces of furniture for my room that girls use, most notably a vanity where I could put on my makeup.

Eventually, we managed to reorganize my room to my liking so everything fit and I didn’t lose too much. I still had a bunch of my guy posters and interests around the room, and I wondered if they were next to be phased out. Elissa went home at around seven, since her parents didn’t want her to spend the night for the third straight night, and it was a school night to boot.

Dad had ordered pizza while Elissa and I were working on my room, and he called up for me to come down when it got here. We ended up eating it, while watching the news.

“In local news today,” Brett Cannon, the NBC Bay Area news anchor reported, “the de Young Museum has announced the opening of its new Greek exhibit this December. They will be showcasing artifacts from the era of Greek colonization in Sicily, along with an artifact that suggests a part of Greek mythology was actually true.”

The reporter continued as various images of the Greeks splashed on the screen. “That would be something, wouldn’t it, Dad?” I asked, after swallowing some of my pepperoni pizza.

“Uhm-hmm,” he replied, through his pizza.

“Also,” Brett Cannon continued, “a cargo ship that was bound for Sausalito was reported stolen from its dock. Port authorities have no idea on how this was accomplished, as there were no reports of anyone aboard the ship after she put into port. However, authorities in Alameda recovered the vessel later today, when the ship entered the port over there, and collided with the dock. No one was hurt in the incident. Bay Area authorities are currently investigating these strange turn of events.”

“Now, that’s unusual,” my dad commented, thinking about it for a while later.

“Yeah, who would steal a ship out of one harbor, only to put it in another across the bay?”

“Who indeed?” he said, mysteriously.

We continued watching the news and the weather report for tomorrow was supposed to be a chilly start, but should warm up into the lower 60s. Elissa said something about wearing a hoodie and jeans to school, under those kinds of weather conditions. It was fine by me, since I probably would be wearing that if I were still a guy.

Before we changed the channel to watch one of our Sunday shows, there was a strange report about the animals that were running amok through Sausalito. The authorities spent the better part of the afternoon rounding them up, but they didn’t say where the animals came from.

We watched television for a couple of hours afterward before he told me to get some sleep, due to it being a school day tomorrow. I pointed out that Zee was registered as a student there, not Zatanna.

However, my father gave me a sly look and said, “Don’t you worry about that. Now get to bed.”

I nodded and went to go get cleaned up. Elissa had laid out a nice purple nightie for me to wear to bed tonight. I humored her and said that I would wear it. After I had put it on, I found that it was quite comfortable to wear, and I did enjoy the feeling of it against my skin.

I did one last check of my email, found nothing of interest, and went to bed. I went to bed hoping that I wasn’t going to be made fun of yesterday by some of the jerks that loved to torment those who were different. After all, my classmates had seen me as Zane and not Zatanna. Tomorrow was definitely going to be an interesting day to say the least, as I drifted off to dreamland.

 
 
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.