Chapter One
Dolphins, Mice, and Second Grade Teachers
“Annie!” Mrs. Strict, my 7th grade teacher shouted. “Take the lunch count to the office! Get up! Now!”
“Yes, ma'am.” I stammered, rising out of my seat as fast as possible. “I didn't know you wanted me to do it, sorry!”
“Well, now you do! So do it!”
“Can I have the paper, then?”
“Um, yes, of course.” She handed me the little yellow slip of paper with the lunch choices on it and I walked quickly out the door.
It was the beginning of the school year, and I realized that I had received the worst teacher in the school. Well, the second worst teacher. Mrs. Hawston, a 2nd grade teacher, was also horrible. More horrible even than Mrs. Strict. Luckily I had never had Mrs. Hawston.
I wished it was still summer, when I could be away from all of these problems at school. I imagined I was a dolphin, leaning forward as I pretended to dive into the cool, crisp waters of the vast ocean...
And suddenly I was. Not diving into the ocean, but a dolphin. I was a dolphin.
Yeah, I know what you're thinking. What the heck was going on?
Then several things happened all at once. First off, Emma (a quiet girl in my class who didn't talk about anything, especially her family, turned down all of my attempts at friendship, and had red hair and freckles kind of like my own) had come around the corner right as I was transforming into a dolphin. She now let out a squeak and ran back the other way.
Second, Mrs. Hawston, the “evil” 2nd grade teacher, came walking down the hallway and screamed.
“There's a dolphin!” she yelled.
During all of that, I was was quickly thinking about how I had turned into a dolphin. I had dove forwards, imagining I was a dolphin, and then I had become one. So I figured that the same method would work for any animal, hopefully including humans. But I couldn't turn back into myself just yet. Doing the best I could being a dolphin, I dove forward while imagining that I was a small white rodent. Almost instantly I was a mouse, and I scurried behind a garbage can to wait for Mrs. Hawston to leave.
What had just happened really started sinking in as I crouched behind the garbage bin, in the form of a small, white, furry mouse. At first I had just accepted it and tried to solve the problem. But now that I was safe...
“Well, I must to be dreaming.” Was naturally my first thought.This wasn't right. People didn't just turn into animals. But I had. And I clearly remembered waking up this morning, feeling not like I was in a dream but the same as I had any other school morning.
It had to be real. And Emma knew something about it all. When I had seen her face, it didn't just show fear; it was a wide-eyed expression of shock and recognition.
Anyways, Mrs. Hawston was still standing there pointing at, (now anyways), nothing, when Mrs. Figg walked out into the same hallway.
“There was a dolphin dolphin, right over there!” Mrs. Hawston said immediately.
“Now, now, Si-si,” Mrs. Figg said. “There aren't any dolphins in the school hallway.” she sneered. I had never heard her talk to anyone that way before. She was usually the nicest person I knew. She must really hate Mrs. Hawston, or Si-si as she called her.
“First off, don't call me 'Si-si'. My name is Sierra.” Mrs. Hawston started. “Second, I am not seeing things. You know I'm not making this up. And you know what this means.”
“And you know that this is not the place to be discussing it!” Mrs. Figg hissed. So she turned away and went back down the hallway the way she came. Mrs. Hawston stood around for a second before stalking off herself.
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“Annie!” Mrs. Strict barked as soon as I entered the classroom. I had returned to my normal form, walked to the office as quickly as possible, but I had still taken way too long. “You were gone for a half an hour! HALF AN HOUR! TO TAKE THE LUNCH COUNT TO THE OFFICE! You've almost missed the entire math lesson! That should've taken you one minute, maybe two or three if you got lost, which you shouldn't have! Why were you gone so long?”
“I-I-” I stammered. What could I say?
“Actually, never mind telling me now. How about you come in for a detention during lunch recess? Quiet, class! What has gotten into you today? All of you are being loud and irritable, Miss Annie took a half hour to deliver the lunch count, Miss Emma had a fifteen minute bathroom break, what is wrong?!”
And so that's how the rest of the morning was spent: off and on between math, literacy and getting yelled at.
**************************************************************
For the first part of lunch (my detention was at recess) I was attempting come up with something to tell Mrs. Strict when she asked. I fell down? No, that was lame, plus it wouldn't make me take half an hour. I had a conversation with my old teacher? Nah. I turned into a dolphin and then a mouse? The complete truth, but if that I told her that she would just think I was insane. Funny how that works.
Then the idea came to me. It was embarrassingly obvious, really: I would use transfiguration. Hopefully it would work (I had finally decided that I wasn't dreaming). I figured out the details of the plan in my head, and it actually seemed very possible that I would escape. So, when I walked out of the lunchroom and headed towards my classroom for detention, I was actually feeling quite confident.
As I neared the classroom, I had to wipe the smirk off of my face and replace it with a slightly nervous expression. Even something little like that would set Mrs. Strict off. When I arrived outside of the room, I stood there hovering in the doorway. I had never had a detention before, and was unsure if I was supposed to interrupt my teacher.
Once she realized I was there, she looked up and said “Come.” So I came. “Sit.” I sat.
“Explain.” Well, I didn't explain. Instead, I began to carry out my plan.
“Ok, but first, what's that in the sink over there?” I said. I knew she would be suspicious, but she reflexively glanced over at the sink for a brief moment before she could really register that it was most likely a trick. She snapped her head back quickly when she saw nothing, but she was too late.
“If this is a trick, it's not funny-” she stopped abruptly when she couldn’t see me anywhere. “Annie?” She called, standing up. “Annie? Annie, this is not funny! You'll have a detention with the principle next!” I wasn't too worried about that. I didn't plan on ever going back to school. Or, at least, not this school.
Mrs. Strict was tearing around the room, glancing under desks, in cabinets, drawers, places that I definitely couldn't fit in. “Stupid ant!” She shouted, absentmindedly trying to stomp on it. But the ant escaped from her foot, scurried out the door as fast as it's little ant legs could carry it and transformed into a small white mouse. I suddenly felt a rush of pity for ants, realizing how defenseless I might feel if someone was about to step on me and I couldn't turn back into a human. Luckily I had made it out the classroom door safely. I was almost safe outside when I heard a snippet of conversation from not too far away.
“mid-transformation, she was turning into a dolphin, Mom! She one of us! We have to go back!” It was Emma. Talking to Mrs. Figg. She'd seen me. Then Mrs. Figg started talking.
“I guess you're right. The whole point of coming here was to watch over Annie.”
“Do you think Sierra will stay here, though?” Emma asked.
“Please call her Mrs. Hawston here. But, yes, I don't see why she wouldn't stay here. She's safer here. No one knows who she really is here. And, well, I'm not trying to brag, but with me and my daughter there... Well, it couldn't help her, that's for sure.”
“Yeah. Hopefully you're right. But one more thing – sooner or later Annie's going to figure out about her parents. No one can keep secrets very well at STP.”
“Well... We'll see what happens. If it seems like she's getting suspicious we can tell her the story. It's best if she can get used to the transfigurational ways first, but that's not how other people will think.”
“When are we going to leave?” Emma inquired.
“As soon as possible. We'll just have to tell everyone we're moving. Sierra won’t believe us, but it's not like she could tell anyone else the truth. But, for now, recess is almost over, so you better get back to your class.”
Emma and Mrs. Figg parted, but I still stood there, stunned. This was too much information to take in all at once. I tried to sort it all out in my brain. Mrs. Figg was Emma's mom. This made sense, but wasn't obvious, because they spelled their last names different: Mrs. Figg with two g's and Emma Fig with one. And they could transform. I wasn't the only one. They were her to watch over me and Mrs. Hawston had something to do with all this, too.
And then there was that bit about my parents. What was the secret? That they were dead, probably. I'd lived with foster parents for as long as I could remember, with not so much as a picture of my true parents, so I couldn't exactly say that I missed them. But the though still triggered a little twinge of sadness that I might never find my real parents.
I bet they could transform, just like me. Maybe they even knew other families that could transform. Perhaps the Figgs were a family friend. I would've known of my unique power as young as I could understand it. Maybe I wouldn't even have had to go to normal school.
I snapped myself out of my daydreams. I had to get going. Where, who knows, but I couldn't just sit around here all day in the form of an ant. My foster parents never got home from work until an hour or so after I usually got home, so they wouldn't know I'd skipped half the school day. I wiggled under the door as an ant, and then transformed into an eagle. I flapped my wings and soared into the sky. It was an amazing feeling, flying so high, with the wind on my wings on such a perfect, blue sky day. I was almost disappointed when my light brown house came into view below and I ended my fly.
I easily transformed back into myself and grabbed the key under a stone in our front yard. Unlocking the front door, I wondered what I should do. I had left my stuff at school, but it's not like I could ever go back to my school, Cherry Creek, with everything that had happened. I'd probably be expelled soon anyways.
I was sitting at the kitchen table with my head in my arms wondering what on earth I could do when a hummingbird banged against my window. Instead of falling down dead, it kept right on hovering in place.
“Shoo!” I yelled and flicked my hand at the hummingbird. It wouldn't leave. I got up and banged on the window, shouting at it, because quite honestly it was creeping me out.
It still didn't leave. So, figuring my day couldn't possibly get any weirder, I opened the window and let the bird fly in. It flapped its way through the window, clearly satisfied. Then it landed on my kitchen table and immediately turned into a rolled up piece of paper tied with a red ribbon.
Yes, I know. That's not normal. But that's what happened. So I picked up the letter untied the ribbon and unrolled the long piece of paper.
Dear Annie Johnson,
We have been notified that recently you have demonstrated transfigurational abilities. Because of this, you have been accepted into the one and only School of Transfigurational People. Because your abilities were noticed after the usual start age of five years old, you will be tutored for a month in place of elective classes. There will be a tutor available to help you with homework and get you fully caught up for the rest of the year. The school's start date is in one week. You will find more information such as school supply lists at the Shop for Transfigurational Education. Please press the red button below to be transported to our world, Alacceliana.
Good Luck!
There was a red button actually protruding out of the piece of paper. I was tempted to press it straight out, stunned that there was a whole world of people like me. I mean, I knew that Mrs. Figg and Emma could transform, but a whole world?
Then I thought about my foster parents, and my school, and what they would do I suddenly disappeared.
But I had powers. I couldn't just say here and ignore them. I kept on having a war with the part of me that wanted to go and the part of me that was worried.
The part of me that wanted to got won. With a deep breath, I pressed down the button. Immediately the world around me started to blur. Shapes whirred by me and I felt a little sick. After a while (well, I'm sure it wasn't that long, but it felt like a while) the spinning stopped and I fell on the ground out of dizziness.
I got up and brushed myself off, looking around. I was in front of a large, metal gate with patterns carved into every bar. Soon a girl with red hair who was leaning against the outside of the gate noticed I was there and silently got up to open it.
And there, standing at the gate to the transfigurational world, was Emma Figg.
Chapter Two:
Alacceliana
“Emma,” was all I could say.
“Yes,” she answered calmly. “Follow me.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Alacceliana. Our world.”
“Alacesella... what?”
“A-lace-sell-ee-ana. It's the technical term for our land, but everyone just calls it 'our world.' Means 'land of the transformers' in the Olde Language.
“The Olde Language?” I asked anxiously. Would I have to learn a whole new language to communicate here?
“Don't worry,” Emma assured me quickly, “nobody speaks it anymore.”
After a while longer of walking in silence, I brought up a different question.
“Is this why you never talked to me before? Because you were afraid of letting something slip about transforming?”
“Yeah, pretty much. You'd figure out how my mom was, not that it mattered a lot, it just made everything simpler. But it drove me insane, pretending I didn't know you, pretending I didn't want to know you... And all the while we were cousins!”
“We're.. what?! Why didn't you tell me? It had nothing to do with transforming!” I shouted, shocked.
“But if you knew we were cousins... the you'd have to know that mom was your aunt. That would be hard to keep secret.”
“Why does it matter?” I had a feeling Emma wasn't done explaining, but I had to ask.
“Well, this isn't real important... but Mom didn't want to trust me in Sierra... er, Mrs. Hawston's class,” She seemed to realize that she had said too much, but she recovered before I had time to ask here more. “That's not the most important reason, though. If anybody knew we were related, we would have to take care of you. And then it wouldn't be possible for you to not know our secret,”
“I don't get it,” I declared. “The letter I got from the School for Transfigurational People-”
“STP,” Emma corrected.
“Whatever. The letter I got from STP said that the usual start date was five years old. Why did I have to wait until I was twelve?”
“If kids don't show transfigurational abilities by age five, they are sent back to the normal world until they do, just in case they don't have powers,” she explained.
“Aren't you getting behind, attending a normal elementary school?”
“A little bit, but not really. Mom has been tutoring me almost everyday, and I did go to first and second year at STP. But enough talking. You know we could've flown here, but I thought it would be good to catch you up a bit. Anyways, I present you with Alacceliana!”
We were at the end of the path. In front of us stretched a huge but old-fashioned city full of buildings and people. People like me. People who could transform.
“Shall we explore?” Emma suggested with a grin, and we were off.
Our first stop was STE, or the Shop for Transfigurational Education. I never thought shopping for school supplies could possibly be exciting. But I was wrong. My list contained things far more interesting than paper, pencils and pens. Regular paper, pencils and pens at least. It went:
Supply list for 7th years at STP:
Books:
Transforming Essentials, volume 7
Alaccelianian Culture
It Can Transform: a Guide to Giving Objects and Animals Transfigurational Properties
Transforming Essentials, Special Edition: Finding your Patron
Supplies:
3 Self-sharpening pen-pencils
1 Color-changing marker
1 Color-changing colored pencil
1 Five-subject transforming notebook
Clothing:
Girls: Dress or skirt with school appropriate top
Boys: Dress pants and colored shirt
*All supplies for electives will be provided or sold by the school
Thank you and please be sure to have these supplies by September 14, the start date of this school year.
I stared at the list in wonder.
“We can find all of this in this store?” I asked Emma.
“Yep,” she replied.
“And where will I get money to buy all of this?” I questioned. I didn't have much money of my own, and I hadn't brought any of it with me.
“I'm sure Mom will pay for some of your stuff. I also bet you get some from, er, your parents' account.”
“My parents,” I said, hoping she might explain something. But, of course, she didn't.
Picking out my school supplies was interesting, but after we finished I realized the best was yet to come. Now we could actually explore.
The stores here were much more exciting than back home. The clothing stores (we had shopped at four) had a huge variety of unique clothes: shirts with changing logos, patterns and colors; coats that adapted to the temperature outside; a dress that transformed into a nightgown after a certain time, and more. Just for fun, we stopped at a toy store, and I saw a huge selection of transforming toys. A home supply shop contained self-cleaning dishes, plates that turned into bowls, brooms that turned into shovels, etc
I was exhausted but happy by the time we had finished our shopping. My purchased items (mostly clothing) were stuffed inside and expanding purse that looked like it would just fit a wallet and some change. We stopped at a fast food place to eat (the food was pretty much the same in this world, at least what I had seen of it) and then talked about going back to Emma's house.
We decided travel in the form of eagles. As I soared into the darkening night sky and followed Emma, I thought of what a day it had been. It didn't seem possible that just earlier today I had been sitting in class, getting yelled at by Mrs. Strict to take the lunch count to the office. So much had changed since then.
Chapter Three:
A New Home
Finally Emma the eagle began to drift downward a small town came into view below us. She landed softly in the yard of a good-sized light blue house and stood up, a human again. I did the same.
“Here we are,” Emma declared. “Your new home.” She knocked on the door and called, “It's me, Mom! I've got Annie with me!”
Mrs. Figg came hurrying to the door and opened it up quickly.
“Annie!” She shouted, and came out to hug me. It was a little awkward, her being my former teacher and all, but I didn't really mind. She was always super nice to me, and she made school easy. My favorite teacher by far. Plus, I'd have to get used to this sort of thing not that I knew she was my aunt.
“Come in, you two. Oh, Annie, I'm so glad you can transform. I was beginning to worry, what with you getting so old and not showing any signs. Not that it's a bad thing of course, we'll get you perfectly caught up and-”
“Mom! We get the point,” Emma interrupted, looking embarrassed.
“Yes, sorry. Well, why don't we show you to your bedroom. Lead the way, Emma.” They showed me up the stairs, across a short hallway, and to the bedroom at the end.
It was huge compared to cramped room at home, but everything seemed pretty normal. A comfortable-looking bed stood against the left wall with an empty wooden desk and chair across from it. There was a chest and a bookshelf in the remaining space, and I could see a door to a closet.
“Wow,” I said. I couldn't believe they had done all of this for me. And they didn't even know for sure that I would be coming. “Thanks.”
“You like it?” Mrs. Figg, or should I say Aunt Molly, asked.
“Of course,” I replied. “Oh, and, this is kind of an odd question, but what would you like me to call you?”
“Molly works,” Mrs. Figg, er, Molly, said.
“Okay... Molly,”
“What now?” Emma demanded.
“How about we leave Annie in peace to unpack. Then, turning to me, she said, “I think you'll find everything you need in the closet, but tell me if I missed something. Bye!” She smiled kindly as her and Emma walked out the door and left me in silence.
I put the purse containing all of my purchases (it looked to fit even one of them, but with transforming magic it managed) down on the bed and went to peek in the closet.
There was a huge assortment of clothing inside the walk-in closet. I guess just to be safe, Molly had bought a variety of sizes to make sure I'd have enough clothes to wear. And I would, probably until I was sixteen.
I added the clothes I had picked out earlier to the closet and stashed my school stuff away in the chest. I would leave it there for now.
Then, even though it was still early, I put on some pajamas from the closet, brushed my teeth, and went to sleep after a very long day.
In the morning after breakfast, my tutoring began. Both Emma and Molly sat down to tutor me, beginning with the basics.
As far as math and literacy went, I was probably ahead of most of the transfigurational kids. Last year they had to take a history class, but it nothing I was learning this year (even in my Government & Culture's class) would be building off of it. The only subjects they would really have to tutor me in was Transfiguration (transforming animals and objects) and Transforming (learning to transform yourself).
But before we got to the actual classes, there was the basic structure of STP. In years one through six (which I had missed) children went to school every morning and came home every afternoon, like at normal schools. But in years 7-13 (I'm in 8th right now) it turns into a boarding school. There are separate dorm rooms for 3-4 people, but there is a large common room in where anyone can hang out. Molly would be teaching a class about careers that was just for 8th years, which was convenient, so she would be there to help whenever.
There were electives that you could choose, too. This year I could pick from Art, Band, Transfigurational Science and the Olde Language. Molly told me that Emma and I would skip electives for the first half of the year so that she could tutor me. The second half I was planning to take Transfigurational Science. In that class you learned how to create special transforming products.
Moly then told me about something I found quite interesting. Apparently, every person who could transform had some sort of special ability. Some were more powerful than others, but everyone's would come in handy at some point.
Molly's talent was being good with kids and teaching. If she knew it well enough herself, she could explain calculus to a bunch of third graders and miraculously they would get understand it.
Emma's was a superb memory. If she thought about it, she could remember each and every detail of a conversation she had when she was five. This made her and A+ student all of the time. I didn't know what mine was yet, but they both assured me I would it soon enough, just by being in the transfigurational world and paying attention.
Then came the lessons to catch me up in my classes. They both told me frequently that I was catching up amazingly well in both transforming and transfiguration. The problem was, I couldn't tell if they were saying all of these things just to encourage me, or if I was actually doing that well. I didn't think I was doing too bad, though, since none of the material seemed extremely challenging.
Many details about transforming became clear as I studied with Molly and Emma. Molly told me that when transfigurational people transformed objects, the objects would only temporarily stay in that state. That clarified a few things, because I was wondering why people couldn't just take a handful of sand and transform each grain into some luxury or another.
By the end of the two weeks, Mrs. Figg informed me that I would hardly need to skip electives for tutoring (though I should anyways). I had to admit I was pretty proud of myself: I could now transform objects into other objects and animals, usually on the first try, and I was close to mastering transforming animals. I had no trouble whatsoever transforming myself into anything and everything.
On the last day of summer break before school started, September 13, we gathered our things in bags with properties similar to m purse. The straps were wrapped around our necks for easy traveling, and we decided, after much debating, to travel in the form of horses.
It was the most amazing feeling, galloping along roads and plains alike, racing each other as we went. Although Molly wasn't fit in the human form, she was just as powerful and fast as us when we were horses. We had to take breaks occasionally, but I could swear I had more stamina in this form. I had loved horseback riding when I was little, but let me tell you, that was nothing compared to actually being the horse.
Finally a massive brick building appeared in front of us. It looked like a normal school, only it as three times the area and several stories higher than any school in the mortal world.
Aside from the building, the scene was a strange sight to see. Animals of all shapes and sizes mixed with people were crowding toward the large building. I had the slightest hunch that none of them were actually animals. And our little group, which definitely weren't animals, turned into our real human selves as we drew nearer, and finally, entered the school.
Chapter Four
Zaine Gonzalez
Molly went to drop her things off in the teachers' dormitories while Emma showed me to ours. We would share a dorm room (which consisted of two sets of bunkbeds and a bathroom) with one or two other girls. Since we hadn't planned out who would stay with us already, we had to look around for any girls who were willing to share with us.
It seemed that most people had contacted their friends in advance and reserved a room. We weren’t allowed to have a dorm to ourselves, unfortunately, so we ended up deciding to share with a seemingly lonely girl named Selena Gonzalez. She was fourteen, in her tenth year, but there were no rules against sharing a room with someone of a different age.
After we had deposited all of our things in trunks (there was one for every person in the dorm) we headed downstairs to see the common room.
It was a huge area, full of couches, chairs, tables and TVs. But then something, or rather someone, caught my eye.
He was looking at me, too. Something brought me to walk over and introduce myself, and it seemed he had the same idea.
“Hey.. um, hi,” I stammered. For some reason, just looking at him gave me butterflies in my stomach. “I’m Annie Johnson.”
“Hey,” he said smoothly. His dark brown hair fell perfectly over his green eyes. He flashed a dazzling smile at me as he said, “I’m Zaine Gonzalez.”
“Annie? You okay?” Emma whispered in my ear, “Maybe we should go.” She started to pull me away, but Zaine called, “Wait!”
Emma sighed in annoyance. “I’ll be in the dorm if you need me. You two have fun.” And she walked away with that.
“Sorry,” I grinned apologetically.
“That’s okay,” he replied. “Hey, do you know your schedule?”
“Er, yeah,” I dug in my pocket and pulled it out. I kept it in there because I hoped Emma could show me to all of the classrooms. Zaine took his own out and compared it with mine.
“Cool,” he said. “We’ve got all the same classes except for electives.
“Sweet,” I replied.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow in transfiguration, first hour,”
“Yep!” I called as I walked back towards our dorm. I was feeling very light and happy inside. As corny as it sounded, it was love at first sight with this guy, and it seemed that he possibly felt the same way. And I would get to see him in four out of my five classes! Everyday! I couldn’t believe my luck.
Then something occurred to me. Zaine Gonzalez. Selena Gonzalez. Were my roommate and newest crush related? Emma and Selena were already in the dorm room talking when I got there, so I had to ask.
“Hey... Selena?”
“Yeah?” She replied, looking up.
“Well... I was wondering if you were related to Zaine Gonzalez.”
“Yeah. He’s my half brother. Long story.”
“I’ve got all day,” I said truthfully, sitting down on one of the beds.
“Ummm...” Selena hesitated.
“Tell her,” Emma commanded, “or I will.”
“Go ahead.”
“Fine,” Emma said. “So, Annie, this goes a bit further back than Zaine and Selena, but it’s an important story. So here it goes.”
“Long ago, there was a Figg girl who had an extraordinary good power. She was almost like a goddess. At the same time, there was also a Gonzalez, with an extraordinary dark power, that was almost, but not quite, as powerful as the Figg’s.
“They each married an anonymous person, they’re not important, and had kids. Back then, girls always took their mother’s last name and boys took their father’s. The daughter of the Figg and the son of the Gonzalez got married. They had twins: a girl who looked like her mother and a boy who looked like his father.
“Now, the Gonzalez power was given to the first child of every generation in the Gonzalez family. The Figg power was not. The Figg ‘goddess’ made a prophecy when she was dying that the good power would show itself again when the dark magic was being used at it’s most. But we would always have a certain resistance to their power.
“So the father of these twins inherited his father’s dark magic, but chose not to use it. The twin boy, however, who was born just minutes before his sister, did. He became quite infamous for his dark powers.
“Each of them married and had kids, and each family lived on. My mom and your mom, Annie, are descendants of the Figg girl. Selena’s father is a descendant of the boy. the dark magic has been passed down ever since. The good power hasn’t yet been seen since that ‘goddess’ had it. Selena, would you like to explain the current situation?”
“I guess,” Selena took a deep breath and then began. “Well, my father was an only child, so he inherited the dark magic. He didn’t want to use it, though. His name is Richard. He first married my mother, Maria Lopez. They had me. So, yes, I have the dark power.
“My father is a good man. he would never use his powers to takeover and destroy the government like he did, if he was on his own free will. He was not the type who would want to take over Alacelliana, and he definitely would never divorce my mother for a stupid evil hag like Sierra!” she said heatedly.
“Calm down, Selena,” Emma said gently. “Please get back to the point.”
“Sorry. Well, Sierra Hawston- you know Sierra Hawston, right?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Evil second grade teacher.” Selena raised her eyebrows but continued on anyways.
“Ok. Anyways, she was born with the talent of being able to control and manipulate people. She can only control one person at a time, though, luckily. Currently she is controlling my father. He knows she’s controlling him, but there’s nothing he can do about it. If he tried his very hardest, he could probably escape her mind tricks for a little while, but she would kill my mother first, who is keeping captive. Ugh! I hate hat woman!”
“And Zaine?” I pressed. I thought I already knew the answer, but I didn’t want it to be true.
“My father and Sierra’s son.” That was the answer I had been dreading. Why did the one guy I fell for have to be the son of the most evil woman in the world?
Later, Molly took us out to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Emma told her how she and Selena had explained the whole Figg-Gonzalez story to me.
As I lay in bed that night, I got to thinking about how weird all this transforming stuff had been. Even putting aside the fact that I could transform into anything (which was weird enough on it’s own), I now had my second grade teacher as an aunt, a girl who would never talk to me as my cousin.
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