The Lonely Magician

"Glacies, Aqua, Occursum!" resonated through the basement in a deep tenor. A blinding blue magic circle formed over the floor and a damp chill permeated throughout the air. A slight shiver tore through Jasper.

"Damn," he said.

Jasper peered into the puddle of water with ice crystals forming at the edges. His reflection revealed short messy blond hair, white skin, and sleep deprived blue eyes. A short sleeved blue shirt wrapped from his left shoulder and buttoned halfway up his right side. The reflection of Jasper's black cargo pants and hiking boots rippled in the puddle.

Jasper turned and grabbed a notebook off the floor. He flipped past several pages before finding a place to write.

* Experiment 3,487: Attempted to create slush by Ice, Water, Meet incantation.

* Result: Failure. A puddle of water with Ice crystals bordering the edges formed after .03 seconds.*

As he finished his entry, he heard the soft footsteps of his mom creeping down the stairs. "Jasper, hon, it's time for school," a sweet and loving voice called out from the edge of his basement laboratory.

Jasper sighed. He closed the well-used cover of his book and opened the basement door. "D-do I have to? I st-still have another 36 experiments I w-want to com-complete." Plus, Caleb will be there.

"Yes."

"I can m-miss this m-morning, right? It's just the wel-welcome back ceremony. I could complete at l-least another five experiments. But which should I do?" Jasper trailed off as he became lost in the sanctuary of his ideas. Perhaps he should try combine instead of meet? That might work. And the –

His mom smiled at him, sighed, and said, "As much as I love having you at home, your father and I could use some alone time. I'm sure you understand – "

"Legends! W-we agreed to n-never bring that up!" Jasper yelled as his cheeks warmed and his mind tried to drag that horrifying memory from the depths he had, until that moment, successfully buried it in. He shuddered; no child wanted to see that.

"I'm go-going! Don't say any-anything else!" Jasper shouted as he carefully ran past his mother, up the stairs, grabbed his things by the door, and dashed out. He paused for a moment to catch his breath while he leaned against his front door.

"Well, that's unusual. What happened to you over the break?" Centra asked as she walked down the hall with her younger brother.

"N-nothing you want to know about. Let's go b-before she catches us," Jasper said as he grabbed Centra's hand. He had to save her from his mother's grasp. Why did his mom have to be so embarrassing?

"Uh, are you sure we shouldn't say hi?" Centra glanced at the door. She'd known Jasper for most of her life so there was very little his mom could say that she didn't already know.

"Yes," Jasper said with a shudder. "She's in one of those gu-gushy moods." Gushy, ugh he wished that was the actual mood she was in…

Centra laughed at Jasper's gushy. "And that is why you'll never have a boyfriend."

"How about we st-start with my inability to talk to st-strangers?" Jasper said as he rolled his eyes at Centra.

A few years ago, Jasper had stopped telling his best friend, Centra, everything he was up to. A few years ago, Caleb had started bugging then bullying Jasper.

Jasper tightened his grip on Centra's hand. He didn't want her pulled into what Caleb had called a dangerous deadly mess.