Some Kind of Magic

I was back to school, completely healthy again on Monday. As Dr. Milton had said, the allergic reaction faded away by itself in two days time, and the sore throat was beginning had disappeared as well. When I told Robbie about it, he did sympathize with me . . . at first. He asked me to take a picture and when he actually saw it at the lunch table, he said “you could have come to school on Friday and just told people that you went on vacation and got a really bad sunburn. And then got punched in the face.” I voted not to. My teachers had probably expected me to be a mess because of how much work I had missed but because of my friends’ help, I was able to hand in everything they asked for and enjoy the shocked expressions on their faces. It really was the perfect way to start the day back at school after a week. The twins let me know that the Monday I was away, the music department had collected all of the proceeds and donations from the concert, and apparently people had been very generous. In fact, all of the money raised went straight to our trip, and each student was getting two hundred dollars knocked off their fee. Now it was down to nine hundred, but I only have five hundred left to hand in because my mother had written a four hundred dollar cheque for me that morning and asked me to hand it to Ms. Giry. When I showed up at her door, she congratulated me on my performance once more, and also for impressing Mrs. Cole. Then she asked me where I was last Wednesday for band practice and once I told her I had strep throat, she no longer felt the need to be upset about it. After that, I just handed her my cheque and ran to my first period class, as the music was had begun playing over the sound system.

Two weeks passed extremely quickly. I had already missed the first week of October, and nothing of particular interest happened, except for the times when Ryan would come to my house or I would have to sneak out late at night to see him. I finally got him to actually get off the tree branch and come into my room because since his reason had been that he didn’t have permission, I just reminded him that my dad invited him inside. That seemed to turn his mind around, but I had a feeling his resistance was just beginning to wear off. He could have thrown out a rebuttal that he wasn’t allowed at night, or in my room but he just let it pass. I liked how he was beginning to expand his boundaries now, because even thought I had warned him about my mother, that didn’t stop him from visiting.

We were now in our third week of October, and in about a week and a half on Sunday was Halloween. Elsie was going to decorate her house and allow the trick-or-treaters to pass all the way through while nearly pissing their pants from being so frightened. If they made it all the way through, they’d get candy. If they backed out . . . well, they still got candy but not as much as they would have it they went to the end. I had seen her setting up; it was pretty horrifying. The whole front portion of her house was decked out with scary decorations, and somehow Elsie had gotten her parents involved in it too. They would spend hours on end working on it when they got home from work and Elsie had made the twins, Emma, Broderick and I promise to do a walkthrough to make sure we jumped at least once. If we did, then the little kids definitely would. She seemed pretty excited to make everyone scream when they entered her house, and when it confused me a little why she would be looking forward to it so much, Robbie explained that Halloween was Elsie’s favourite holiday and she always went all out for it; even if it was just her costume, she never failed to frighten people.

Broderick had already confirmed he was going to be spending his Halloween with Annalisse, which I answered to with a roll of my eyes. I was pretty sure we all did. We had planned on spending the night together until Elsie made her plans clear; as did Broderick, Emma and Robbie, who were both aiding Elsie with her “haunted mansion”. That left Dylan and I. We had been invited to a party but I wasn’t big on them, so I RSVP’d no to it but he was still undecided. I would have helped Elsie, but I scared as easily as the kids would, so I backed out. Ryan offered to spend Halloween with me because he was going to take Cassie out trick-or-treating, and when I was going to say yes the night after, he had to call it off because he was being forced to work until eight. Apparently the restaurant was redoing the menu and creating an entire Halloween-based theme for it. He even had to take on extra shifts to help decorate it. I was tempted to go visit him while he was on duty, but I couldn’t remember where he worked. It kept slipping my mind. But I wasn’t really worried about Halloween. I was probably just going to stay home and hand out candy with Christabelle, who wanted to get into the holiday spirit of being around children. After all, a year from next Sunday, she would have one of her own. Not that she could give them anything particularly candy-like to eat. They wouldn’t even be a year old.

On Tuesday after school as I was walking out to the buses to meet Elsie, who was waiting for me so we could take mine back to my house and work on our group project together, Christopher—or rather, Chrissy—called my name out and when I turned around, he was jogging up to me.

“Hey girl! So listen, a lot of people have told me about you and how awesome you are and I thought you might be interested in joining student council,” he suggested. I was caught off-guard. “I know it’s sudden and we’ve barely talked since I introduced myself at your table that one day but I’m sure you’d love it. And Elsie’s in it too so you wouldn’t be short any friends. Plus, everyone is super nice.”

“Isabelle!” Elsie came over and smiled at Christopher. I couldn’t call him Chrissy. I had no problem with him—in fact, I thought he was really cool—but I just really could not bring myself to call him Chrissy. “Hey, Chris. What’s up?”

“I was just telling Isabelle about WSC,” he said and looked at me. “You know, ‘Westwood Student Council’.”

I nodded. “Of course.”

“You should join!” Elsie laughed. “I can’t believe I never brought it up to you before. We could really use a new member, because we’re kind of short this year.”

“When is it?” I asked.

“Monday’s after school.”

“Is it one of those costly clubs? Because if it is, I really don’t think that would go over well with my parents. I’m already pushing their limit with my trip to New York, and well . . . you know how we’re not exactly a rich family,” I replied.

Elsie put her arms out. “Neither is my family but I still joined. And no, you don’t have to worry about crazy expenses. Student council focuses mainly on the school’s issues, but every now and again, we do involve ourselves in volunteer work around the community. But we’re nothing like social justice, so you don’t have to worry about dropping hundreds of dollars a month to help different organizations. They make you feel guilty if you don’t, you know? That’s why we don’t like them.”

“Exactly, and you’ll see them setting up booths in the halls now and again to raise money for charities or asking you to sponsor a child but if you don’t willingly help them out, they will glare the shit out of you,” Chris added. “I can handle that kind of support now and again but not all of the time. They take on way too much but student council really just focuses on making the school a safer and friendlier environment. A few people actually suggested you.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised. “Who would do that?”

“Oh, you know, your friend Emma, the Sinclair twins, a couple other people. It’s a big school,” he replied, lifting a hand to wave it off. “So will you join?”

“I’ll definitely think about it,” I smiled. “It sounds like something I could handle. I just don’t want to put myself in too many after-school activities and have them conflict with my classes.”

“Understood. Let me know. Elsie, give her my number. I have to get going,” he said, and quickly scurried off.

“Does he have a boyfriend?” I asked her as we headed in the direction of my bus.

“I don’t believe so, why?” She froze. “Oh God, Iz. You’re not seriously crushing on a gay guy, are you?”

I laughed harder than I knew possible after hearing such a thing. “No. I just don’t understand how someone like him could be single. He’s very sweet.”

She smiled. “I know. But I don’t think Chris is really all that interested in relationships anyway. He’s kind of . . . oh, how do I put this?” She tapped her chin, and then decided on the appropriate term. “Sexually liberated.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Really?”

“What most people do in college, Chris does in high school. That way, he has more time to figure out what he wants from a guy,” she replied and shrugged. “It’s not our business though. If he wants to fool around shamelessly, that’s his choice.”

I snickered. “This reminds me of someone. Except her ‘sexcapades’ aren’t exactly kept private.”

Elsie burst out laughing. “You’re talking about Mackenzie, aren’t you?”

“I am, yes.”

“She’s hardly sexually liberated,” Elsie disagreed. “That involves pride. And Mackenzie certainly doesn’t have any of that.”

I smiled. “That’s true.”

“Oh! I remembered what I wanted to ask you. My parents are going up to the cottage this weekend and they said I could bring you guys along, so what do you think?” she asked. “Robbie, Dylan and Emma can come; I just had to ask you and Broderick. Do you think you’d be allowed?”

“If I asked my dad, yes,” I said. “If I asked my mom . . . no.”

“And which one went to Italy again?”

“That would be the father.”

Elsie let out a questionable, animalistic growl that made me giggle. “Can you check with her anyway? There will be parental supervision and everything, and we’d have a blast.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I nodded. “But I can’t promise anything.”



My mother was apparently going out of town for the weekend, and Blade and Christabelle were planning on seeing the renovations on their house, and how far it had come. After so many weeks, it should have been pretty close to being at least half done, but they wanted to take a look at it anyway. After that, they were going to be shopping for everything baby-related that they would need when it came, but since they still didn’t know the gender, they had to shop for unisex. They were stuck between red and green, but neither were really the right colours for a baby’s room, so they were back to square one. Since no one wanted to leave me alone in the house for so long, my mom said yes to me going to Elsie’s cottage, and immediately following the end of school on Friday, we were taking Broderick’s and Elsie’s parents’ cars down to avoid all the Saturday morning traffic.

I was walking home from the bus stop on Thursday when I heard someone calling my name and turned around. Ryan jogged up to me, and smiled when he reached my side.

“Hey,” I grinned. “What’re you doing here? You live on the whole other side of town.”

“I know, but I wanted to come and see you,” he said. “My dad’s putting a magic show on some time after Halloween and it’s his first performance in like . . . twenty years so I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go with me.”

“You came all the way over here to ask me that when you could have called?” I asked, and laughed when he only nodded. “Well I’d love to go with you. Would we be counting this as a date or just a friendly outing?”

“I don’t know,” Ryan answered, looking at little nervous. “Whatever you would like.”

I was usually the one to be tense, not the guy. It was refreshing, in a weird sort of way, to see Ryan this way. He looked legitimately anxious for my answer and because of this, a feeling of newfound power washed over me. “I think it’s a date,” I said. Ryan perked up.

“That’s great. I’ll come see you again soon,” he said and began to turn away but I grabbed his arm.

“Where are you going?” I asked. “You came over here to ask me a simple question. The least I could do is invite you in for a while.”

“Isabelle!” I heard my brother call to me as he stepped out of his car. Ryan and I both looked over at him. “I won’t be able to give you a drive to school tomorrow. I have to go into work early and—oh. Hi,” he said awkwardly, lifting a hand to Ryan. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you guys.”

“That’s okay,” I responded. “Blade, this is my friend Ryan.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, stepping forward and offering Ryan his hand. Ryan took it quickly and gave it a firm shake. “I’m Isabelle’s older brother.”

“You two look alike,” Ryan smiled.

“We don’t get that a lot, but thank you,” Blade chuckled, putting his elbow on top of my forehead. That just showed how much taller he was than me, because it was no problem for him to do that. “I look up to this one here. She’s pretty, isn’t she?”

Ryan laughed whole-heartedly. “Beautiful.”

“Did you hear that, Iz?” my brother asked, nudging me. “The guy’s got good taste.” I could only blush. “Why don’t you come in for a bit? My wife and I would love to meet the boy who’s caught Isabelle’s eye.” Blade sure was good at embarrassing me, especially since he had rendered me speechless in front of Ryan, and decided to mess up my hair by ruffling it. It was probably my best hair day too.

“That’s very nice of you, thanks,” Ryan said gratefully and followed Blade inside. He was the first one in and once he had taken his shoes off and walked to the kitchen to meet Christabelle, looked at me and winked.

“Please don’t make a fool out of me,” I begged, placing my bag down on the bench and unzipping it so I could grab a few things.

He tilted his head and smiled mockingly. “Now why would I ever do that?”

“Do you know you?” I asked testily, raising my eyebrows.

He only snickered. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it anymore. You must really like this guy if you cared enough to whip out your hairbrush as soon as he was out of sight, huh?” I glared at him and stuffed my brush back inside. Blade walked to the kitchen and I slipped off my shoes, kicking them to the side and sliding across the tile floor in my socks. The first thing I saw was Christabelle, and it surprised me how big her smile had become. It had been weeks since I was able to actually see her teeth when she smiled but as she stood there talking with Ryan, she couldn’t hold it back. I looked at Blade curiously but he just shrugged and walked to the refrigerator to get something to drink.

It was like Ryan meeting my father all over again. Christabelle and Blade adored him, and I thought that at first with my brother, it was just a guy thing but when Ryan asked how the two of them had met, stars appeared in Chris’s eyes and Blade immediately launched into their high school love story, so I thought maybe not. And just like before, I just sat there like a rock, not saying much of anything. But that was when the trouble started, because my mother stepped into the room suddenly, her head down while she texted furiously on her phone. When she looked up and spotted Ryan, her lips dropped into a very deep frown.

“Isabelle,” she said directly to me, not tearing her eyes away from him. “Do you mind telling me who this is?”

“This is Ryan,” Blade answered for me, feeling the need to come to the rescue. “He’s Isabelle’s friend.”

“From school?” she asked and I shook my head.

“No, he’s the guy from that night after the gala, remember? The one who was doing the magic tricks,” I said and her face fell even farther than before. I probably should have lied to keep her happy. Now she was going to become judgmental and snobby. I remembered what she had said about him that night; let’s go. You don’t want to get involved with these people. After nearly seventeen years of living with her, I had caught on to her expectations and what she thought of people lower on the social scale than us. I had a pretty good idea of what was going on in her head. She was comparing Ryan to her dream man for me, and that was one of the million reasons why I didn’t want her to meet him. It didn’t matter how nice the guy was; if he wasn’t who she wanted him to be, he wasn’t good enough. I definitely couldn’t tell her how much I liked him because she would try to convince me out of it. My mother was a real gem.

“Oh yes, I remember,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Ryan. He shrunk down in his seat, feeling very uncomfortable.

“He’s very talented,” Christabelle said, smiling and placing her hand on top of his for support. “I remember seeing you a few weeks ago actually, in front of the library. You’re a fantastic magician.”

“Thank you,” he said, his face lighting up.

“What school do you go to?” my mother asked.

“Actually uhm, I don’t.” And he was right back to looking at his shoes.

“Is it a money issue?” she questioned.

“Mom!” I hissed, trying to make it obvious that she was being inappropriate and extremely inconsiderate.

“Mom, that’s a little personal, don’t you think?” Blade pointed out.

“I’m just asking.” She tilted her head sideways. “How do you manage to get an education if you don’t go to school?”

“My parents have taught me everything,” Ryan said.

“So you’re homeschooled, huh?” she mumbled, disapprovingly. “That’s a very easy way out—”

“Wow! Look at the time,” Christabelle blurted, jumping out of her chair and holding her stomach as she waddled over to my mother and placed a hand on her back. “You’ve got to go to work! It’s already four o’clock! You’re really late.”

My mother furrowed her brows. “It’s my day off.”

Christabelle took a pause while she tried to think of something to say. “Well . . . okay. Hey, let’s go shopping! I need some more, uhm . . . baby toys. And new jeans too. There’s a sale at one of the stores in the mall!” She hit my brother lightly over the back of the head and he looked up at her, startled. “Blade, come on. We’re going to buy pants with your mother.”

“Awesome!” He leapt up as well and followed them to the door while my mom was pushed and shoved away from the kitchen so she couldn’t say anything more hurtful to Ryan. I felt so horrible. I had completely forgotten she had the day off but if I had known, I would have made sure Ryan and I stayed at least one hundred feet away from her at all times. I guess it was too late for that now; the damage had been done. I heard my mother arguing with Blade and Christabelle but they would have none of it. I heard the door out to the garage close behind them and then we were left in silence. I was thankful for my brother and my sister-in-law’s ridiculous tricks to distract people. This was one of the times where it really came in handy.

I whipped around to face Ryan and took both of his hands in mine. “I am so sorry. I had no idea she would be so rude to you. She had no right to do that.”

He looked from our hands to my face, lifted a shoulder and smiled. “That’s all right. It’s a mother’s job to be protective of her daughter. Besides, you’re the youngest, and the only single one left right? You’re going to get the worst of it, no doubt.”

“But still . . . I should have said something.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I looked at the clock. I had lost track of the time while talking to him, and I still had so much to pack for Elsie’s cottage tomorrow. “Would you like to help me pack some things together?” I asked and when he looked at me curiously, I explained, “I’m going away for the weekend with my friends and I need to get a suitcase ready.”

“Oh. Well yeah, sure. That sounds great,” he said, pushing his chair back and standing up. I did the same but he held my chair away from me so I could get past, so I thanked him. It was almost unbelievable how charming and gentlemanly he was; almost inhuman. I knew mature boys—Dylan, Robbie and Broderick were all fairly well-established for their age, apart from the throwing-people-in-the-pool incident—but Ryan was just very grown up. His manners were probably the equivalent to those of everyone in my house, with the exception of my mother because she would cancel us all out. But then there was Christabelle, and since she was pregnant at the moment, manners weren’t really a big concern of hers as much as the demand for toilet paper, or food that didn’t make her nauseous was. And since my dad was in Italy, that was another strike. And then Abel, who was a dog and he didn’t even know what manners were so it was down to Blade. Ryan’s development level in terms of his behavior and etiquette was probably double Blade and I combined.

“So where are you going exactly?” Ryan asked me once I had dragged a suitcase out of the hall and into my room. I stood between my dresser drawers and my closet, trying to decide which to hit first, while he was on my bed.

“Up to Elsie’s cottage,” I replied. “We’re heading out right after school tomorrow so Broderick’s driving by tonight to pick up everyone’s bags.”

Ryan nodded. “Well you’re in luck. It’s supposed to be a nice weekend.”

I bit my lip. “Ryan, do you know Broderick?” I asked. He looked over at me. “I mean, aside from meeting him that one night, do you know him?”

He opened his mouth for a minute, looked like he was about to say something but then stopped himself and shook his head. “No. So what would you like me to do?”

I knew he changed the topic on purpose, but I wasn’t going to bother why. I just left it because if he wasn’t going to tell me anything, he didn’t want me to know. Besides, it wasn’t his obligation so it didn’t really bother me. “Well, if you don’t mind putting the close in the suitcase as I pass them to you . . .”

“I can do that.” He held out his hand to me and I tossed him a pair of jean shorts. Then I turned back to my closet, found a sweater I wanted just in case it got cooler, and handed them off to Ryan. He folded them and put them in the suitcase, and I went over to my dresser, opening all the drawers I had. What I was cautious about doing was handing him my bra or bathing suit but when I tossed him the bottoms just to see what he would say or do, he didn’t even flinch. He just placed them right in the suitcase. I was impressed and when he looked at me, he smiled and asked, “what?”

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head.

Ryan and I spent a good hour or so in my room trying to figure out what I would need to bring to Elsie’s cottage, and also walking around the rest of the house to find bug spray, mosquito repellant and sun screen. I had never gone to a cottage before, so I didn’t know what to expect but I kept it fairly simple. After we were done everything that I was okay with him seeing me pack, it was time for him to head home so I walked him to the door. Just as he was getting his shoes on, Ryan’s cell phone rang in his pocket and he took it out.

“I’m so sorry, this will only be a second,” he said after taking a look at the screen. I nodded and he excused himself, walking into the dining room. I sat down on the stairs and crossed my legs, waiting for Ryan. He was gone for about a minute and I could only make out a few words; “doctor”, “appointment”, “test results”. I was a little curious about what was going on, but I really needed to learn how to just butt out. Ryan came back around the corner and scratched the back of his head.

“That was my mom,” he said. “I’m sorry, I have to go. She just got home from a—”

“Doctor’s appointment?” I asked and surprise flashed across his face.
“Yeah, how did you know that?”

I tapped my ear. “I eavesdropped. I’m sorry, it just happens,” I said, shoulders dropping.

He smiled. “That’s okay. I had fun hanging out with you today. Have a good time this weekend.” I stood up to get the door for him but then he did something unexpected; he leaned down—since he was a good foot and a bit taller than me—and pressed his lips against my cheek, very close to the corner of my mouth. It made my skin tingle and burn, partially from embarrassment but also from excitement. After all, it was Ryan; who wouldn’t be pudding in his hands? Not only did he have the appearance, but he had a heart of gold. I could have melted right there on the spot. He pulled back and winked, and left my house.

And since I really didn’t know what else to do, I released a little squeal of delight and went upstairs to finish packing.