Let’s start out today’s report with a big “THANK-YOU!” for
Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana.
Just as my saxophone was my top Christmas gift, getting a
portable synthesizer-keyboard was my favorite birthday gift this year. With a little help from my grandparents and
aunts and uncles; I’m set up with everything else I needed from a portable
stand and bench to music books and jump drives for moving music back and forth
between my new synthesizer and my computer.
I won’t be able to show off for anyone else other than Rowen
and my family for quite a while, but I have been reading up on playing the
piano; plunked away on them a bit here and there at school or church; and can
already play a mean piano app on Ehlana’s iPad, so I could actually play quite
a few songs on my new keyboard right out of the box. The only thing that surprises me about my
newfound love of playing music is that I didn’t have any urges to do this
sooner. Maybe being on the run from a
Dark Magi for the first nine years of my life had something to do with that;
but whatever the reason, I’m really glad that I can do all of this now.
I had to wait until after dinner to get those gifts, but I
did get to open a gift this morning; and had a new outfit to wear to school
today. Dad made pancakes and bacon for
breakfast; Mom, Ehlana, and I had some dress-up and hair play time; and then my
day went a bit sideways for a while.
Michael stopped in to drop off a birthday present for
me. Nobody will be reading this anytime
soon, so I can safely admit, if only in my journal, that his gift was my second
favorite – a plush, stuffed, orange and white cat that was a fairly close match
to Mandy; accessorized with a little alto saxophone and neck strap. I loved the gift, and Michael didn’t mind the
fairly enthusiastic hug I had for him in thanks – or at least he didn’t until
the tail end of it was witnessed by Rowen and Patrick. They’d come over to walk to school with me,
and I knew from the look on Patrick’s face that Michael’s plan to keep this
little moment off the school news network wasn’t going to work out for either
of us. Rowen wouldn’t have said
anything, but she made it clear that we’d need to talk later too; and couldn’t
stop grinning at me from then until sometime after we’d started first class.
Some of my friends had cards and little gifts for me, and
that was fun, but then the news that Patrick, with some help from Scott,
launched into the school grapevine made its way to some of our classmates at
lunchtime; and Michael and I were both in trouble from that point on. Michael by far got the worst of it, but Lisa
had a couple of comments for me this afternoon too; and nothing Michael or I
had to say helped at all. The guys all
razzed Michael too, but I mostly only got watched a lot by both the girls and
guys, and only had a couple of my closer friends actually ask me about it. None of this made for a great way to go into
a school dance date, but I do hope that Michael and Lisa work it out and have
fun tonight.
One more piece of information that won’t make the school
gossip or be public knowledge anytime soon is that Michael still doesn’t regret
giving me the present or the hug. I
picked up that little tidbit from him during our music class – at the same time
that we were both getting frosted glares from Lisa that were cold enough that
we should have needed to wear our coats.
You can probably guess that Rowen and I decided not to hang around after
school, and other than checking in at the computer store and picking up her
overnight bag; we’ve spent the rest of the day here at home.
Mom and Dad were only having Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle
Nick, and Aunt Deborah over for my birthday dinner, and since Michael’s gift
and the problems that caused at school gave Aunt Leanne new material to use on
me; I’m really glad there weren’t more witnesses. Before I get to that, though, after getting
home, Rowen and I did a little snack with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana; we went up to
the lounge to hang out and talk for a while; and then we helped Mom in the
kitchen until reinforcements arrived and we were ordered to stop working.
Aunt Leanne came home with Dad, so it wasn’t long before the
jokes started flying. I seriously hope
that some of those lines don’t get out to anyone at school. If anyone at school starts referring to me as
‘Michael’s little sax kitten’, I might just forget about the rules for a while
and use a time phase to drop that person off at the north pole or someplace
else far, far away. I’d have considered
taking Aunt Leanne on a little time phase trip, but that could end up very
strangely if we came back and she was suddenly several months pregnant, or
whatever the equivalent would be depending on how long we spent phased.
I wonder if that would be a popular service? “Magi Master’s Pregnancy Accelerator – Zero
to Nine Months at the Speed of Light!”
That’s a joke, Aunt Leanne, and since you’re reading this for the first
time years from now, no, it wouldn’t have been a viable option for you. Even if I could hold the power level needed
for the equivalent of nine months real time; how would you explain something
like that to the non-magi? I sort of
doubt that being super hyper-active would work as an excuse for a one or two
week full-term pregnancy any more than people actually believed that Lee Landry
bench-presses farm equipment on his lunch breaks.
Getting back to the actual news for today, with the birthday
gift from Michael jokes and commentary as a starting point, Aunt Leanne was
happy to lead my birthday roasting; and it’s amazing how much material she’s
managed to accumulate in the less than three years that Mom and I have lived in
Witch Falls. My best friend and brother
and sister all found that a lot more entertaining than I did, but it wasn’t all
bad for me either; and having dinner wrap up with my favorite Olde Bakery cake
and some very cool birthday gifts was definitely one of the highlights of the
day.
Rowen and I had my keyboard set up in my room, with some
supervisory help from Ethan and Ehlana, by the time the post-dinner clean-up
was done. There was a break in the
birthday party action when Violet got home.
She’d been delayed on the drive from Woodvale, and needed to rush around
to get ready for the Valentine’s dance at the school. Aunt Leanne helped her out with some hair and
make-up support, and Violet was ready to go, and looked beautiful, when Dillon
came over to meet up with her shortly before they needed to hop in her car and
pick up Jake and Stephanie on their way to the school.
Violet had waited until Dillon was there to give me the
birthday present from them, and hugging Dillon to thank him just gave Aunt
Leanne a chance to tease me a little more about hugging boys on my birthday;
and speculating on how Michael would feel about me hugging other boys. Fortunately, Violet and Dillon could only stay
for a condensed version of the rest of that story, though Aunt Leanne still
managed a fair bit of embellishment, and then they were gone again, and Rowen
and I were encouraged to put on a little mini concert in my room. Our showcase included keyboard and flute
duets; a sing-along; and a couple of short piano solos before we all went
downstairs again to watch a movie in the living room.
Going off-track again for a minute, it was funny to think
about the fact that we had two out of three of the women in our usual Friday
night dinner and a movie group now.
Rowen doesn’t know about Aunt Leanne yet, so we couldn’t talk about
that, but Aunt Deborah is starting her last trimester; and she and Uncle Nick
are really starting to get exciting about the impending arrival of their first
baby. Ethan and Ehlana may have been
messing with our aunts by picking the new Baby Geniuses movie to watch. Since it was an utterly forgettable movie,
I’m glad that we did find a little entertainment from talking about babies and
the upcoming spare bedroom to nursery plans that would be starting in a month
or so at Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah’s.
I’d add another pregnancy update for Aunt Deborah, but it’s still going
so smoothly that just about every Mom in town is jealous.
So the third Baby Geniuses movie earned a ‘twenty thumbs
down’ rating, and we did a bedtime snack and story together before Ethan and
Ehlana went to bed; Rowen and I came up to the lounge to get started on our
movie marathon; and the grown-ups returned to the living room for a little wind
down time before my aunts and uncles headed home. We’d had enough of baby movies for a while,
and didn’t want to watch anything that might have us thinking about Valentine’s
Day or the school dance; so we went with watching comedies.
After getting changed and setting ourselves up with pillows
and blankets on the sectional, we were ready to relax, play on our computers,
watch the shows, and chat until we fall asleep.
Rowen eventually got around to asking me about the big birthday gift
scene with Michael this morning, and really started having fun with the whole
thing after Mandy advised her that I loved Michael. Thank-you so much for the help, Mandy.
Rowen is a moderately talented Empath, and that wasn’t
exactly a news flash for her, but that didn’t keep both of them from having a
little fun with me. I didn’t help my
case by having the cute stuffed cat tucked under my arm while they were teasing
me, but it is soft and cuddly; and I do really love it.
None of that changes the fact that I’m still not interested
in crossing over.
We stayed away from talking about the dance. That was mostly for Rowen’s benefit, since
she was already spending too much time thinking about how much fun ‘Tommy’ was
having tonight with his girlfriend.
Everything else was fair game, including talking about finding a reason
for a shopping trip to the city; plans for the rest of the weekend; and
Valentine’s Day week avoidance techniques we might try using for the next four
or five school days. March Break is
still five weeks away, but we spent a little time thinking about what we could
do for that break from school too.
The third movie started about half an hour ago, but Rowen
advised me that she wasn’t going to be able to stay awake for it; and then
promptly fell asleep. It isn’t actually
my birthday anymore either, but Mom and Dad already let me know that I have a
get out of housework card for Saturday, so I do get a bonus play day out of the
deal; and Rowen’s taking the day off from work too. Violet’s home from the dance, but she and
Dillon are still downstairs, so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the
recap – though I’m not entirely sure I wouldn’t be better off not knowing at
least some of the details.
There isn’t anything else to write about tonight, and I
should get some sleep so I’ll be ready for our play day, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
