Chapter 1

Malia's POV

" Honey, I just think that it would be good for you if you made some friends," my mom repeated.

" I feel like you spend too much time alone and as much as you like to disagree; books are not real friends," she says.

"Mom, we've been having the same argument for two weeks," I begin, " You know that it is hard for me to make friends. Why don't we just drop it, yeah? "

" Malia, I know how hard it is. I went through it too, but still, at some point, I found the people that made me feel like I was normal. All you need to do is find the people you belong with,"

I turned away from her to look out the window, I put my headphones in and pushed play on the audiobook that I'd been listening to.

There were only two places that I didn't feel out of place or freakish: in the library with my nose stuck in a wonderful book or in front of an easel wearing a paint-covered apron. Yes, both of those things I do alone, but that was just the way I liked it...perfect silence with enough room for me to concentrate.

When we finally pulled up to our front yard, I got out of the car and raced up the stairs to my room, of course after grabbing my bags from the trunk. I flopped down on my bed and groaned, tomorrow I would have to go back to high school and start another year of pointless classes. It was my senior year and I was no less alone than my freshman year. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I would finally be rid of my tormentors.

At school, people acknowledged my apparent awkwardness constantly. They liked to remind me about just how odd they thought I was. I was the laughing stock of my whole school. They'd push me into lockers, trip me the hallway when I'm too busy reading to notice and throw things at me in class. My peers did everything to make a social pariah, but what they didn't know was that my oddities went far beyond what they saw on the outside.

I am a witch, as are both of my parents. We all belong in the magical realm, but shortly after I was born, my parents moved here to get away from the grief of losing my grandmother. As I was still a baby, I had no choice in the matter so, from the time that I grade school, I knew I didn't belong and so did everyone around me. My parents always said that it would get better as I got older, that I would eventually find a way to fit in with the humans; they have been saying that since kindergarten.

As I began to relish my beloved bed and the comfort of my powder-blue walls, I started to drift off. Exhausted from the trip home and wishing more than anything to be back on the sunny, picturesque beaches.

Every year since I could remember, I'd spent the three weeks before the start of every school year with my maternal grandmother. She lived on the beach in the Florida Keys and I counted the days till I got to go back. I didn't know anyone there and nobody knew me, so I could do whatever I wanted and never feel like the consequences were going to follow me. My mom came to pick me up from the airport when she brought up her favorite conversation " why don't you have any friends?".

It played on a constant loop whenever we weren't around my dad because when we were he'd always back me up. He was a historian at a local college and he too loved solitude, so he understood my preference towards being on my own. My mom was a social butterfly; she had tons of friends in our small town so she could never understand why it was so comforting to us.

" I guess I don't even get a hello from my only daughter whose been gone for three weeks anymore," my dad chimed in from behind me. A smile found its way to my face and got from my bed to give him a hug.

" No, you do...just needed a minute with my room first," I replied jokingly.

" Mom, bring up the being-alone-thing in the car?"

" Yep," I pulled back and sat down on the edge of my bed.

" I'll try to talk to her again, but you know, she's doing it because she loves you and is worried about you, yeah?" he asked as he sat down next to me.

" I know that, but why can't she just accept that I'm like you and drop it?"

" Giving up is just not in her nature kiddo...now get washed up for dinner, I made your favorite," he patted the top of my head and left me to my room.

I quickly did as he was asked and raced downstairs. Sitting on the dining room table it was already waiting for me...grilled gnocchi with squash and tomatoes. Oh, I had been dreaming about this since I left for my grandma's and my dad had made my dreams come true. I sat down in my chair drooling and impatiently waited for my parents to sit down to eat. As I went to sneak one from the pan, a wisp of air slapped down on my hand stopping me in my tracks. I had been caught.

" Young lady, what did I tell you about waiting for everyone to sit before you eat?" my mother asked accusingly as she set down the salad bowl.

" Sorry, mom," I said while rubbing my hand.

My dad sat down beside me and snuck gnocchi off the pan. My mom was too worried about mixing the salad to notice him.

" You just can't get caught," he whispered to me.

My dad served me a heaping pile my mom sat down and I immediately dug in. The gnocchi melted in my mouth as I thanked the goddess that my father had studied Italian cultures. This was the perfect way to say goodbye to the blissful freedom that summer promised.

Senior year means applying for colleges and all the stress that came along with that, on top of, you have to get ready to be on your own. The only thing that's different with me is that I have to ask myself if I want to stay in this realm or move to the other? I'd always wanted to know if I would fit in more with my kind, but is it worth the price of losing my parents? All things that I would have to answer in the next year.

" Malia, you've gone off into your own head again," my mom's voice broke me away from my thoughts.

" Sorry, just a lot of things floating around in there. What were you saying?"

" I was saying that your father has to go in extra early tomorrow so you'll need to get up and go with him," she replied.

" What time?"

" We need to be leaving the house at 5," he answered.

" Ok, I'll be ready to go by then. What do you have coming in tomorrow? You only have to be there that early if there is something new coming to the school," I asked.

" An old parchment from Jerusalem...not quite sure what the details are on the piece, but the Dean seemed pretty excited about it," he said nerding out so hard.

" Well, I'm gonna turn in. See you bright and early, Dad," I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek when I walked past.

Two hours in an empty school...perfect. I could put all my books in my locker and still have time to have breakfast with Ms. McCeery before anyone even showed up to harass me. I laid out my clothes and packed my backpack before going to sleep that night. My dreams were a mishmash of old torments and hopeful invisibility; wishes of going unnoticed by the worst bullies of my grade. I knew that the minute my classmates saw me the perpetual cycle would begin again, but a girl can dream, right?