Funny Tragic Crazy Magic (Tragic Magic Book 1) (5 page)

Erica
Fisher came to school that day. No one, other than me and Joe, thought that was
a weird thing. I stopped by her locker before first period. I tried to talk to
her, to look her right in the face and reassure myself, but I never felt the
heat of an Instinct’s look. She was as big of a rube as they come, excited to
talk to me about fashion magazines, hair products, and who that gorgeous new
kid was.

I
only cared about the last thing on her list. But I tried to pretend otherwise.
It always seemed like Erica didn’t like a guy until she knew someone else
wanted him. In seventh grade, she found out my best friend, Meg, liked this boy
Sam, and by the end of the day, she was making out with him in front of Meg’s
locker. It wasn’t as if she was an intentionally mean person or anything, not
as if she kicked cats, or played Celine Dion out her car speakers. She wasn’t
evil.

She
was just annoying. I made it clear that I had no feelings whatsoever for this
new kid, (Josh was it?) and she was welcome to date him if she so chose.

Besides,
I wasn’t worried. Joe had seen a version of her die and turn into an old woman.
That wasn’t the kind of memory you could just wipe clean because a girl looked
pretty without the aid of
transformation
runes.

Anyway,
it didn’t matter, because I didn’t like Joe. I had no feelings for Joe. He was
just a nice person who could help me get back my mother’s notebook. I needed
him, but I had no feelings for him.

I
had no feelings for Joe.

I
repeated that mantra in my mind as I walked into my second period class. Joe
looked up when I entered the room and smiled.

Crap.

I
took the seat next to him. I tried my best to ignore him and pay attention to
Mr. Beaman instead. It didn’t work. Joe kept slipping me notes with questions
on them.

How
does runelight make magic happen?

I
sighed and then wrote a note back.

I
don’t know, but I’ll ask Giara next time I see her.

Before
I handed him the note back, he had another question ready for me.

Was
your mom a Rune or a rube?

I
pointed to the word Rune, and then he glanced once at the teacher and wrote
again.

So
is the hormone thing genetic?

I
nodded. He was quiet for a while, so I snuck the note from his desk and wrote.

Your
mom is a rube, right?

He
looked over at my writing and nodded. I wrote again.

So
where’s your dad?

Joe
looked over, crumpled the note we had both written on and stood and walked out
of the classroom.

I
sat back in my desk. At least the door was open so no one saw him walk through
a solid wood door.

I
waited a few minutes to see if he would come back, but he didn’t. I started
feeling guilty about saying something inconsiderate, but where did he get off
being mad at me when he could say anything he wanted to without fear of how I
would react?

Hypocritical
is what it was.

I
put up my hand and asked for the hall pass. Mr. Beaman nodded without asking
for a reason. I guess there are privileges when you ace every test and don’t
cause trouble. Teachers tend to trust you not to do something dumb.

I
walked out into the hall to go do something dumb. Joe was walking toward me.
The bottoms of his pant legs were wet.

“Hey,
I’m sorry about asking about your dad,” I said when he was in earshot, “I
didn’t think…”

“No
problem, Larissa.” He looked at me and he smiled the biggest smile I have ever
seen on him.

My
face felt toasty warm, and I’m sure my cheeks went red. I wasn’t blushing. His
Instinct magic was on high. He walked past me and back into the classroom.

I
stood in the hallway for a moment trying to decide what to do, my fingers
against my cheeks feeling the residual warmth. I left the classroom to find
Joe, but if I went in right away, it would look like I left the classroom to
find Joe.

I
decided to walk to the girl’s bathroom and check my runes instead. The one for
my stomach was a working rune, and I would hate for it to end during lunch like
that one time when I was in seventh grade.

When
I got to the restroom, the boy’s bathroom next to it was the one that held my
attention. Water seeped across the linoleum floor from under the door. Feeling
curious, I pushed open the door to the boy’s bathroom and looked in.

“Hello?”
I called out.

No
one was inside. I entered, mostly because I have a strong belief in saving
natural resources, and if someone left the water running, that would leave the
school quite a water bill. Also, I had never been in a boy’s bathroom before
and this was a good chance to see how the other half lived.

Turns
out, they lived disgustingly, but that wasn’t important. What was important was
the glowing red rune written on the mirror. The brilliant curved line was
brighter than any rune I have ever seen. Sparks of runelight exploded across
the sink. It was the rune for
water
, and the sink drain it stood above
was shooting water about four feet into the air.

I
wiped the runelight with my fingers from a distance, but the rune was too
powerful, and it wouldn’t budge. I stepped closer to the mirror and stuck my
hand through the geyser that shot through the sink. Water covered my dress and
soaked my hair. I ran my fingers over the rune and it felt hot to the touch,
but it wouldn’t rub away. The runelight was disappearing though, so I knew it
was a working rune. When the magic ran out, the water would stop flowing.

I
stepped back, and the cold water sent goose bumps up the back of my neck, as my
flowered dress clung to my skin. Was there another Rune in the school, maybe
watching us?

Worse,
like I suspected, as part of me already knew… was Joe the one who wrote that
rune?

“
Hide
.”
In my mind I heard Fake-Erica say her last words.

I
didn’t move. The bell rang, and rubes started walking around the hallways. A
few rube boys walked into the bathroom and saw me frozen there, with the water
flowing to the ground. They didn’t seem to notice the rune, glowing like a
firework. I couldn’t take my eyes away from it, as those rube boys left to get
a teacher or something. I took in a shallow breath when the runelight faded;
the water moved to a steady gurgle, and then a thin stream of water ran from
the faucet. I turned the handle to off. Then with my hair and clothing
plastered to my body, I walked out of the bathroom.

Giara
came to visit me today. Apparently, my scars have healed enough now, so they
are going to fit me with artificial hands. I don’t know how to feel about that.

I’m
sure Doctor Jensen mentioned this outside artistic activity to her. I’m sure
Giara has read or will read it. Maybe I should go back to the beginning and
tell Giara not to worry.

Done.

Sometimes
I wonder what would have happened if I stopped at this point. If, as soon as I
suspected Joe could do runes, I took the life insurance money and moved
somewhere warm, and I could just start over, maybe find a job in a library, or
as a hand model.

Because
I’d still have hands, that’s for sure.

Anyway.
After I stood under the hand dryers in the girl’s room for all of third period,
and then reapplied my
transformation
runes, I went on as if it were just
a normal day. I ate lunch with Megan, passed a math test, and flirted with some
of my friends…

I
didn’t even have to avoid Joe. He just wasn’t there. He didn’t wait for me at
my car, and he didn’t show up at my house that night or the next morning. In
that time away from him, I kind of lied to myself. I told myself there was so
much I didn’t know. There was an Instinct at the school the day before, so who
was to say whoever sent that spy in Erica’s body couldn’t send another one: a
Rune this time, to blow up the boy’s bathroom to rid the world of ick.

 I
wore a vintage pantsuit to school that next day. I don’t know why that matters,
but I thought I’d throw in that little detail. Anyway, Joe didn’t show up. Not
for second period. Not after school. I started to worry about him, and so on my
way home I decided to stop by his house.

I
guess I’m not that good at avoiding.

The
sad thing is... I wasn’t scared. Not of him, not of what could, and did,
happen. Does that make any sense?

I
knocked on his door, and his mom opened it. Ms. P. had long light brown hair
pinned up in a half ponytail. She wore sweat pants around the house, only
cooked food from a box, yet somehow always smelled like vanilla. She had
beautiful hazel eyes and freckles across her nose. At home, she didn’t wear
much makeup, and it made her look younger somehow. She never looked old enough
to be Joe’s mother, yet there was so much of her in Joe’s features.

She
smiled when she saw me. “Ms. Alvarez, how can I help you?”

I
looked over to the house number. The white truck was in the driveway, and I
knew this was where I dropped Joe off.

“I’m
looking for Joe.”

Her
smile fell when I said Joe’s name, “He’s in his room, but he isn’t feeling well
enough for visitors today.”

“Oh,”
I said. “Okay.”

I
started walking out to my car when I heard Joe’s voice inside. “Mom, I think my
fever broke. I feel just fine.”

I
tucked my hair behind my ears and held my hand on the car door handle.

“Riz,
wait,” he called out to me.

I
turned. “What’d you call me?”

“Riz.
I made it up. Larissa is kind of a mouthful--you know what I mean--to say. You
like it?”

Riz.
It sounded like a tough girl name, not like the sissy pearl-wearing Larissa I
had been pretending to be. It felt like kind of a fresh start, a new name for a
new beginning.

“I
like it,” I said.

Joe
stood in his doorway in a loose pair of cotton pajama pants and a plain white
shirt. His disheveled hair reminded me of the way Fee’s hair always looked like
in the morning. Short, but kind of all over the place.

He
smiled at me, and I smiled back. It was so comfortable, being with the boy who
would destroy my life.

“I
gotta go.” I said gesturing toward my car.

“You
just got here. Come on in.” He nodded his head gesturing toward the door, “Hey
mom, we got any food? I’m starving.”

He
turned into his house and left the door open. I just stood there wondering if I
should go in. If Joe could do runes, then I should avoid him or report him.
That would have been the smart thing to do.

Being
smart, though, meant I’d have to go home and be all by myself. I looked down at
the ground and walked after him.

The
house smelled like paint. Every room was a different vibrant color: the front
room a cobalt blue, the kitchen a screaming red. The little green sitting room
held the family’s computer and bookcases full of books. Half full cardboard
boxes perched in the corners of almost every room. The house looked like chaos
and felt like home.

Ms.
Penrod was in the kitchen making peanut butter sandwiches. She made one for me
without asking. There was something so comforting about eating food that you or
fast food workers didn’t make. It’d been a while for me since that had
happened.

“Hey,
you want a tour?” Joe asked.

He
was abnormally proud of this old house as he showed me the kitchen, the front
room, and the tiny sitting room. A warm yellow covered the walls of his
mother’s room, and a gold and red bedspread covered the queen bed.

We
stood for a moment in front of the final door. It was Joe’s room. He looked at
me for a second like he wasn’t sure if he should let me in. Just when I was
ready to go back to the front room, he opened his door.

His
room was white, except for one wall. It seemed like every color of paint used
in the entire house made up this crushing wave of a mural. The bulk of the
color was the cobalt blue, but the red and the green took space in the wave. It
made me feel like I was watching the ocean, and hidden in the random waves were
various runes painted in perfect patterns. I walked to the wall and ran my
fingers about an inch away from the paint. Sparks flew from my fingers as if
the entire wall was magic.

It
was amazing. I looked over at Joe.

“It’s
not done yet.” He looked embarrassed.

“It’s
magical.” I said stating the obvious. He looked at me and smiled, and I was
glad I came. “Where were you today?”

“It
was the weirdest thing, after second yesterday I just came down with something,
so I came home and slept for like fifteen hours. I could barely move when I
woke up this morning.”

“You
okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,
I feel fine now,” he said.

“The
water, was that you?”

Joe
cleared his throat, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The
rune,” My voice felt too loud when I remembered his mom didn’t know about the
magic and was only a wall away.

I
stepped closer to Joe and lowered my voice. “Did you draw the rune for water?”

“I…
Look, I was mad because… My mom was raped when she was sixteen. That’s how she
had me. The fact that my… sperm donor… had magic was just a little much to
take, you know?”

I
nodded and he continued. “So I went to the guy’s bathroom. Whenever I’m
agitated, my fingers kind of draw one of those three shapes, those runes I
carried around with me since I was little. Anyway, so I put my hands against
the mirror, and without knowing what I’m doing, my fingers just drew the rune
for
water
. This burst of runelight came out my fingers and the sink just
exploded with water. It was amazing. I’ve never felt so powerful.” A chill ran
up my back when he said this. “I grabbed my bag and ran home, because I didn’t
want to get in trouble again. By time I got home, I was ready to pass out.”

“Joe,”
I whispered. I started again with a stronger voice. “Don’t… ever… whatever you
do, don’t do runes. Instincts aren’t supposed to do runes. Please, promise me
you will never do a rune ever again.”

“Why?”

“Promise
me, and I’ll tell you, dumbie.” I said.

“Okay,
I promise, Riz. Why should I not do this horrible thing?”

I
took a deep breath. “The kind of magic Instincts can do, like you walking
through walls, is way beyond the strength of magic a Rune can do. When an
Instinct does runes, the magic doesn’t come out like ink from a pen, it’s more
like a fire hose. That much energy exploding out… You could have died, Joe.
Worse than that, there are people in our history that are both Instinct and
Rune, and they have done terrible things. Keep-you-up-at-night things. That’s
one of the reasons the Grandmothers exist. To protect us, from… people like
you. If they find out you can do runes, they will kill you and punish anyone
around you. Your mom. Me. My mom always told me that if I ever saw an Instinct
that could do runes, I should hide. It wasn’t just that Instinct that she
wanted me to hide from.”

Joe
looked somewhat green. I looked down at his carpet.

After
a minute, he looked at me, pulled my chin so my face was across from his and he
spoke, “I promise, Larissa.” I stared deep into his eyes and he was serious.

“I
won’t.” I knew he meant it, that he would never let them hurt me.

His
mom coughed and pushed Joe’s door wide open. I stepped away from Joe and
brushed my hair behind my ears.

“Your
sandwiches are going stale.” Ms. P. said with a slight smile, and then she
turned away from Joe’s door. Joe followed behind her. I took one last look at
the mural, and then left Joe’s room.