I'm Fine in the Fire, Don't Try and Fix Me

"Good job today, Liam." My mother told me.

I nodded my head. Panting was the only thing that was going to come out of my life for a very long time. God, this witch thing is exhausting.

I was lying on the floor, trying to recover from the latest training session. It was intense, like always. I think my mother secretly feared that one day something was going to happen, and I would have to defend myself. That's why I think she works me so much. She wanted to make sure I was protected at all times. There was always that unknown reason why she does things. She doesn't talk much about personal things, not even with my father.

Yes, I eavesdrop on my parent's conversations. Doesn't every teenager? No? Well, let's move on then.

Back to the point, she doesn't go very much deeper than the surface, even when she thinks they are alone. There a secret in my family. I know that, but I can't figure out what it is. Sometimes, I think the other kids know because I'll hear the whisper in the halls. There is this one name, not even a name, just one word that pokes up. Midnight. I don't know what it means. You don't learn witch history in school. I'm just afraid that if I ask my mother, she'll go berserk. No one wants that. Last time it got even remotely close to that, we had to replace some of the windows and door in the house. And, I don't mean like the door handles or get some new paint. I mean, she ripped everything clear off the wall and completely shattered the glass. You wouldn't even know there was glass there, just an empty space. She was a scary woman, even if she wasn't trying.

"Did- Did you want to g-go to Max's for dinner?" I panted, still on the floor.

"Hm," she hummed. "I suppose. Will your cousin be there?" She asked.

There was another thing about my mother people sometimes forgot. She was perfectly content with who she was. It didn’t matter if she suddenly grew three extra eyes and six more fingers. She still would think she was perfectly fine. Nothing was the matter with her. Nothing.

So, when my cousin started showing the common symptom of ignorance and arrogance that always came with her diagnosis of snobbiness, my mother had enough with her. No one was going to treat her family like she was treated when she was my age. Which was what exactly? I don't know. We already discussed that. Stick with the program. It pained her still, though. She helped raise that girl, and she didn't want her to end up like that. Neither did my uncles. No one wants their children to grow up hating people they shared genetics with.

I didn't really mind though. She was older than me. We never went to the same school at the same time. She graduated the year before I went to high school, and her mate wasn't all that bad. Sometimes I wanted to throttle him, but we all get those feeling though. So, it was normal.

"I don't know." I said finally peeling my sweaty self-off of the floor.

"Well," she started. Here we go. "If she gives you trouble, any trouble at all, you have my full permission to smack her, like bam!" She slapped her hands together. "You just go ahead and do that because I have one free slap."

"What?" I asked. We were now in my car. She didn't have one, and no, she didn't fly. You watch too many movies. My father drops her off on the way to his work.

"It's a long story." She said.

"We have time." I replied.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," she said. "When the twins were born, and when you and your brother were born, Max and I came to an agreement. We always had this fear that our kids were going to grow up to be the exact people we didn't want them to be, so we decided that if that child was going to become too much to handle, we would get one free hit. It's only one per family, so if he hit your brother, he wouldn't hit you. It isn't a perfect system, but we were kids back then."

I couldn't help but laugh at her. "That has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard."

"Well," she said. "When you become mated, and you hold those wonderful babies in your arms, you're going to have some fears about them growing up. And, I wasn't going to raise you to be no fool now, so if need be, I think on slap would do you good, just a quick one."

"That's an interesting technique, mother." I chuckled.

"What can I say? I'm just the poster girl for normal." That made me laugh even more.

She had always been sarcastic, even when she was first mated with my father nearly twenty five years ago. There was a lot that I didn't know about her past, but I knew she would always have her wit. It was just something that she would have to have. You know something is wrong when she wasn't joking.

This is what I loved the best about her. We could sit in the car, laughing about nothing. There was nothing to worry about. No one yelled at us on the street. People didn't give us weird looks. It was like the car was our haven, and the windows were our guard. I felt like sometimes it got to her, too, the staring and the questioning glances, and thoughts that weren't true. It had to all add up at some time. No one was that good, not even her. So, I felt like this was the time I could relate to her the most. We were pretty much the same, me and her.

When we arrived at the house around five in the afternoon, my mother immediately started doing her motherly duties. "Thane, Blake report!" She screamed in the house. It was a silent family tradition of ours. The only way my brother would ever answer questions when they were really little is through army code because they were obsessed with G. I. Joe.

My two brothers came racing down the stairs and jumped into a single line with their salutes up. "Is your homework completed?" She always asked first.

They usually nodded in response.

Then she would walk right in front of them, staring straight into their eyes, as mothers do. "Are you lying?"

It was common knowledge that if they looked at each other then it was a yes. If not, it was a no. There was no look today, so they did in fact do their homework.

"Am I driving anyone to any school event, party, or something in that nature today or anytime in the future?" She always asked third.

The answers varied with this. Today, Blake was asking if she would take him driving tomorrow after school because I was going to be able to. I was working with the tiny witches tomorrow, so I had to go directly after school. Of course, being my mother, she said yes.

"Are there any things I need to know, like grades coming back or projects coming up? Anything of that nature?" She always asked last.

Blake said no, so he was allowed to leave with a quick "Solider dismissed." Thane on the other hand had a teacher conference.

"A teacher conference? Well, what about?" She asked.

He mumbled something that I could hear, but my mom looked absolutely shocked. "Oli, get down here." She screamed. My tattooed father came up the stairs from the basement shortly after.

"Yes, love?" He asked in a way that sounded like she was interrupting something. From the looks of his bloodied shirt, I would say she had.

"Your son here has a conference with the principal because of the large amount of humans he has killed." She stated. My brother looked guilty.

"Really?" he asked. "How many?"

"Twelve this month." Thane answered shortly.

"That's my boy!" My father replied in his British accent.

"Oli," my mother replied, shaking her head. "Don't encourage him."

"Right, sorry." He said, nodding. "Now, son, you must realize that you can't go killing a human at every corner. You must worry about your education first, and your anger second. If this becomes an issue, you will have consequences."

Thane nodded his head before quickly leaving as well. My parents said their proper hello's before my father said hello to me and started asking the typical parent questions, like how was your day and all of that jazz. It still amazes me that they ask it, even though every single time the answer is always the same. Fine.

That was our typical afternoon in the family. Mom was right. We were the poster board for normal.