Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Your favorite Magi Master twins are hitting the road for a work and play adventure with Cassie, Michael, and their four best friends! They will be crossing Canada from east to west coasts with fun and adventures to share all along the way while keeping up-to-date on the top news from home every day; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of our latest adventures; and happy reading!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Cassie's Journal - September 14, 2012

The top news story for our class at school today was Karla’s birthday party. I’m going to skip writing about who was getting cozy with whom; and be glad that I wasn’t there to witness any of the action. Hearing about most of it today was bad enough. We had our first Day Two schedule Friday, and I definitely like ending the school week with our Day One classes better; though Rowen and I still had a pretty good day too despite the ongoing party re-hash that kept most of our classmates entertained.

Rowen and I did our homework after school, and then rode our bikes and played at the park until it was time to head home for our dinner and a movie night. There was another home football game tonight too, and I did check the town intranet to find out that our team won again; but Rowen and I were both good with staying home and spending the evening with my family.

I haven’t written much about Aunt Deborah’s pregnancy here; and probably should more often. She’s dealing with morning sickness every day, but that’s been fairly mild so far; and she hasn’t even needed to take any time off from the clinic. There apparently aren’t any major food gross-outs for her either, and everything else about her pregnancy is going great.

We had dinner in the dining room; cleaned up the kitchen; and then moved on to the living room to watch a comedy together. Grandma, Grandpa, Rowen, and I took care of Ethan and Ehlana’s bedtime routine after that while Mom, Dad, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Adam, Aunt Deborah, and Uncle Nick stayed in the living room for a little couples’ chat time; and then all three of them headed for their homes once the twins were tucked in for the night.

I’ve been in my room since shortly after seeing Rowen out, and worked on my language studies; some Magi Project archive research; and the usual nightly computing that included reading about the football game highlights – though I’m sure that I’ll hear about the real, non-game-related highlights at school on Monday. We’re going to be busy with the never-ending yard work in the morning, and I’ve already stayed up later than I should; so...

...say ‘goodnight, Cassie’.

“Goodnight, Cassie.”

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Cassie's Journal - September 13, 2012

Happy 12th birthday, Karla!

It’s been a rainy afternoon and evening, but I hope Karla’s had a fun time at her birthday party. Rowen and I weren’t on the guest list, and despite Rowen’s recent close call; I’m sure she was as glad as I was not to be going to the boy-girl party. In her case, I’ll guess that at least a small part of the reason for that is because she doesn’t want to be around to witness anything that might push her across the line again.

Our afternoon and evening would probably rate as boring by comparison to the rest of our classmates, but I was quite happy to go home and work on my homework and the family business until dinnertime while Rowen was working at the computer store. Game night at the Inn was quieter than usual for Rowen and me because we were the only two kids in our class playing tonight. It’s not like we ever have even half of the kids in our class at the Inn on Thursdays; but it was different having nobody else there. I don’t know if having Dad away in the city next week made a difference, but he and Mom won the senior championship this week; and Miranda was already talking about partnering up with Mom next week to get in on a chance for a possible repeat win. Considering their record; I’d say their chances are pretty good.

When we got home, Ethan and Ehlana were popped into the tub so they’d be squeaky clean for their first Friday morning visit to KidZone. Mom and I took care of that while Dad started on his homework in the office. We all did the bedtime snack and story together; I helped get the twins into their beds; and have been working on my computer since getting changed and into bed with Mandy. I skipped the archive studies, and have only done about an hour of work on my languages, but we’ve got a few busy days ahead, and I’m going to get a little extra sleep tonight, so...

...say ‘goodnight, Cassie’.

“Goodnight, Cassie.”

Cassie's Journal - September 12, 2012

It’s been another beautiful day here, and even though we were at school, that did allow us to have Phys-Ed outdoors; lunch time is always better when we can escape from the building for a while; and just having bright sunshine to look out the windows at feels better than it does on bad weather days.

Why am I writing about the weather?

Because I’m trying to avoid writing about what has been on my mind off and on all day. No matter how much I might wish it to be different, it seems that ignoring or avoiding the favorite extra-curricular activity of nearly every tween and teen in town is impossible.

Avoidance got less likely today, and while I’m not suggesting that I’d rather be oblivious to what’s going on around me; sometimes it’s not fun being an empath.

Rowen crossed over today – or she did for a few minutes of temporary insanity. She came back this time, but the writing’s on the wall; and I’m going to have to deal with being the last sane Grade Seven student in our school while also figuring out how to support my best friend as she descends slowly into madness.

Okay, so that’s just a bit over the top, but you know what I mean.

The ‘moment’ came while we were at the park this afternoon. I’ll skip the rest of it, but let’s just say that by then; I’d already had enough of the boy-girl goofiness that seemed especially intense among our classmates today. We’d already done the after-school snack with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana, and finished our homework, before biking over to the park. As usual during football season, there were boys playing a pick-up match there; while a group of girls were sitting on the bleachers playing their usual part in the other game going on there – the only one they were really interested in. Rowen and I rode over to the football field first; mostly just to talk with some of our friends for a few minutes before moving on.

We’d been sitting on our bikes next to the bleachers that the rest of the girls were sitting for a few minutes when one of the guys in our class scored a touchdown on a long pass and run play. I’ll leave the names out for Rowen’s benefit, but when the girl in our class who is currently chasing touchdown boy started bouncing around and cheering for him; and Rowen saw his reaction to her attention; that was the moment when she crossed over.

Just as an aside, if jealousy can cause you to cross over; I wonder if it’s ever been a trigger to launch a strong latent across the line into having usable Magi power. Violet’s trigger had been different, but then anger had triggered other involuntary uses; so I suspect strong jealousy could have the same effect.

Studying that would be more interesting, but would just be another way of avoiding this little problem of mine.

I know what you’re going to be thinking when you read this some day, Aunt Leanne; and no, not even having my best friend cross over ahead of me is going to pull or push me into making the leap too. My personal preference would be to just skip the next couple of years and just meet the rest of the kids my age on the other side once they’ve passed through the crazy years. No, I’m sure that won’t happen, but I might be able to shorten the time I’ll be stuck in the middle of it all.

Getting back to Rowen, as I mentioned already, she did come back over the line again, but I know that it’ll happen again, and eventually; she’ll stay on the other side for good. When she does; I’m going to have to figure out how to handle doing all of the things she’ll want to do with the other girls when the last thing I want to do is sit around; talk about boys; moon over them; chase them; or giggle over every lame joke or amazing, ridiculous feat that the boys attempt to impress with.

If that sounds harsh, ask yourself how you’d feel if you were a PhD student, and the guys all sat around trying to impress you with belching, drinking, and eating contests.

Oh wait – that pretty much describes every college comedy movie ever made; but I’m sure you get my point.

Rowen and I went on to go for a ride around the park shortly after that moment, and she didn’t want to be anywhere around that football game after that. She was even quieter than usual too, and we split up and went home or to the computer store a half hour before we needed to be back. I’m sure Rowen’s had even more to think about that I have; though she didn’t talk about any of it when we were chatting on the computer earlier.

I had dinner with Mom, Dad, and the twins; Mom did a Magi lesson with us; I helped her with the bath and bedtime routine for Ethan and Ehlana; and I’ve been working on my computer in my room since they went to bed. Archive and language studies; email; a bit of family business work; the chat with Rowen; and the usual nightly news, entertainment, and sports check didn’t really keep me distracted enough, though it has at least helped to make me tired. Maybe that will keep me from having dreams tonight that have Rowen and me in the middle of endless moments of tween angst. I have a feeling there will be more than enough of that going on in the real world for us in the not-nearly-distant-enough future.

With Halloween coming up, even the timing for this is scary!

That’s enough for today.

Say ‘goodnight, Cassie’.

“Goodnight, Cassie.”

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Cassie's Journal - September 11, 2012

I imagine that everyone in the world who knows about what happened in New York on 9/11 is at least thinking about it today, even if the commemoration isn’t the big deal it was last year on the tenth anniversary.

Mrs. Warren did talk about it during History class this morning, but there wasn’t an assembly or any school-wide commemoration. It’s actually been a fairly normal, quiet day at school; and that’s probably a good thing. Our Day Two classes aren’t quite as much fun as Day One, but ending the day with Art and Computers is good, and while Rowen and I won’t be taking the art world by storm with our efforts; we do really like the drawing and painting we’ve been doing for the first module.

It’s been a work night since getting home from school; though I stopped in for a visit with Rowen’s parents first. My homework and family business work kept me busy until nearly nine, and then Mom did a lesson with me after putting Ethan and Ehlana to bed. I’ve decided to go to sleep early instead of staying up late to study; though I did my archive reading from Mom’s lesson while having a soak in my Jacuzzi. I’m in bed with Mandy now; just finished a quick email check before getting to this; and since I’ve covered what little news I have for today, I’m going to leave you with this little 9/11 commemoration, and call it a night.

The Angels Cried

I remember the day before it happened

The rain fell down, cleansing the city

Just another rainy day

As we went about our lives

If we could have this day back again

Would we have done anything different

If we had known

If only we had known

Chorus

But Heaven knew

What was going to happen

The gates were open wide

To welcome thousands

It wasn’t just

Another rainy day

For on the day before it happened

The angels cried

I remember the morning that it happened

The sky was clear, the sun so bright

Then the world came crashing down

And so many lives were lost

If we could have this day back again

Would we have done anything different

If we had known

If only we had known

Chorus

But Heaven knew

What was going to happen

The gates were open wide

To welcome thousands

It wasn’t just

Another rainy day

For on the day before it happened

The angels cried

Cassie's Journal - September 10, 2012

The back-to-school transition is just about complete now that we’re into week two. While there are always some kids and teens needing a little more time to adjust from summer freedom to the daily grind of classes and homework; most of us are settling in, getting on with the work, and trying to have as much fun as we can while we do that.

I don’t have much particularly exciting to report from school today, but while I was busy playing Grade Seven student, one of the things I spent some time thinking a lot about was how different Magi students handle sports. Mom and I have both written about our own experiences, but there really isn’t all that much written about things like this in the archives. From what we’ve been told, there also aren’t any specific rules in place for the Magi in Witch Falls either – except that they’re - we’re – obviously not allowed to overtly use our Magi powers overtly.

What’s interesting to me is how the individual Magi handle dealing with that compared to how I do. For instance, in Rowen’s case, before meeting me, she didn’t really compete in sports despite the fact that she could easily have been one of the best in her class at everything. Her abilities don’t extend quite to the same level as mine do, but we do still need to hold back when we play baseball or during gym class – especially right now when so many of the other girls have a significant height and strength advantage.

The other kid and teen Magi pretty much run the range from not showing any above-average talent for sports to being among the best in the school. That alone is interesting when compared to the fact that every Magi hasn’t seemed to feel the same need to blend in when it comes to their academics. Every adult Magi is a top college graduate or student in their respective fields; and every Magi kid and teen is at or near the top of their class at school. I suppose it would bring too much unwanted attention to our little town to have every Magi collegian also be top college athletes, and doing that won’t be an option for me; but I can’t help but wonder how much fun it would be if we could all have some place to play where we could actually find out just how good we could be both with and without using our Magi gifts.

Getting to throw two-hundred mile-an-hour curve balls would be awesome, but then so would playing against someone who could then hit it too. The vampires in the Twilight movies wouldn’t have a chance against a Magi-powered team!

Getting back on topic, I’ve added some notes to our Magi Project archive; and will be studying this more. I think that the way we – Magi – deal with this sort of thing should change; or we should at least give the kids more guidance. I can tell you from experience that it’s not always easy to hold back and be less than you are; and I’m finding out that it’s even tougher to do when you’re heading into the teen years.

Moving along, I don’t really have any other school news, but music was the best class of the day – even though Mrs. Robinson had us working on basic music theory for nearly half of the lesson before continuing a rotation that would eventually have each of us trying out every instrument at least once. We found out that band practices are starting this week too, and though nobody in our class will be joining; this was the first time I actually paid much attention to the news, and Rowen and I are even thinking about sitting in on a couple of practices to find out what it’s like if Mrs. Robinson will let us.

After school, Rowen and I did the snack and daily re-cap with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana. The twins are sure that they had a more exciting day than we did; and they’re probably right. Their new schedule started today, and the Magi lesson and morning play session with Naomi this morning was the highlight of their day so far. Naomi was going to start spending most Monday and Wednesday mornings with them; and starting this week, Ethan and Ehlana were going to spend Friday mornings with her at the KidZone daycare. That was going to be as much for Mom and for them; and she planned on using her morning off doing the major weekly grocery and supply shopping.

Snack and story time was followed by a homework session in the lounge for Rowen and me; and then we had time to ride our bikes and play at the park for about an hour before splitting up and going home for the night. We didn’t have any guests for dinner, and Ethan, Ehlana, and I liked having Mom and Dad to ourselves for a couple of hours; but Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne came over just as we finished cleaning up. Uncle Adam was doing a Healing lesson with Mom and me, and then Aunt Leanne was going to do some family business work with Mom after that.

Between that Healing lesson; helping with Ethan and Ehlana’s bedtime routine; and doing my own nightly computing, archive and language studies, and a long messaging chat with Rowen; I’ve been keeping busy. It’s going on one o’clock now; and time to get some sleep, so...

...say ‘goodnight, Cassie’.

“Goodnight, Cassie.”