True Confessions of a Mismatched Four

After slouching home at 3:00 on a typical Tuesday, Leslie Mei was utterly… bored. She dumped her backpack next to a chair and washed her hands, wishing for something interesting in her life.

"Hi, Grandpa," she droned as her grandfather noticed her.

"Mmm," he answered vaguely in Chinese.

Leslie went to the pile of mail on the kitchen table to sort. Anything to prolong the time before she had to do homework. Dental appointment. Bills. Win $1,000,000,000! Birthday invitation for her sister. And then…

A strange looking letter had her name on it. It looked like parchment, but that was silly; no one used parchment anymore. And the address – the address was written so precisely it was comical. "To Leslie Mei in the window facing west on the second floor…" She opened the thick, rough envelope carefully, wondering what kind of prank this was. Who would want a laugh that badly?

In green shining ink, a letter stated that she had been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

She laughed. Uncertainly, but with gusto. Who would want to prank her that badly? Frowning, she absentmindedly smoothed out the creases and read over it again. It looked so…real. Whoever made this certainly knew what one would look like. It made her uneasy. I'll think about it later, she decided, tucking it in a book and heading towards the stairs with her backpack.

As she did so, Leslie idly thought, It's not even the right time. School's already started. I'm thirteen. It's just not possible. But it came back to her, continually, and bothered her. And as she started her dead-boring algebra homework, Leslie admitted to herself that she hoped the letter was real.


Meanwhile in the city of Edina, another letter was delivered.

Amy Kuller was picked up from school in a bad mood.

"Hi mom. Lets go home. I have way to much homework tonight."

"Fine, but first I have to run a few errands."

Amy grumbled to herself. She knew what this meant. At this rate, we're not going to be home until 6:30. The first stop they made was to the post office, to pick up the mail from the families P.O. box. The van pulled up in front of the building, and Amy jumped out of the car, keys jingling as she half jogged into the post office. Then she did a double take. Did I just see owls? … No. It couldn't have been. She walked the rest of the way to their box, and pulled out the mail, sorting it as she had always done while walking back to the car.

It was almost ritual that she checked to see if anything had come for her, and usually it didn't, but today was different. Today, she saw a funny looking envelope with her name on it. She ran back to the car, tossed the rest of the mail on the floor and started to look at her letter. It was so strange, and the address was so specific. She curiously opened the letter, reading the first few lines that were neatly written in shimmering green ink. Hogwarts? Yeah, right! She thought to herself and tucked the letter away. The entire ride to the bank, the grocery store, the pharmacy, and finally home, she couldn't stop thinking about the letter.


A little later, in the street of 6th avenue, South St. Paul, yet another letter was delivered.

"Oh, just SHUT UP! Sierra, don't forget to bring in your instrument!" Emilia Seery yelled at her sister as she slammed the door to her fathers Ion shut.

"Emilia get the mail!" her father yelled as he walked into the house.

"Yeah! Get the mail Emilia!" Sierra snottily yelled.

Sigh, why must I always be the one to always get the mail, or put out the trash? Emilia thought as she sulked down the driveway, jumping over sinkholes and looking over at her mother's garden, finally turning and opening the cow mailbox's mouth.

Walking back up to the house, she sorted the mail. Two for Auntie, One for Donald, American girl for Sierra and bills for dad. Stopping by the table, Emilia dropped off the

mail.

No mail for me… again, Emilia thought as she walked over to her room and

dropped her backpack onto the cluttered floor.

Scanning her room to make sure no one had been in there, something caught her

eye. A small envelope with green print was lying on her pillow.

What is that? She thought, jumping onto the bed and picking it up.

To Miss E. Seery

Last bedroom with plants, 1242 8th avenue, South St. Paul

"What is this? It looks like a Hogwarts card. I'll read it later," Emilia told the

room as she threw the letter onto her side table and took out her homework

"I'm not even the right age. Why would I get something like that?"


Greta Gage slammed the car door shut after she got home from cross-country, knowing that she had far too much homework to do. She climbed the stairs and entered her bedroom, dropping her bag of running clothes, backpack, and trumpet. She thought she should get started on her geometry, and so she did. She was almost done when she heard a tapping noise on the window. At first she thought it was nothing, but it continued and began to get very annoying. She looked over to the window and saw an owl with a letter in its beak. She walked over to the window and let the owl in. The owl dropped the letter on the bed and left.

"To Greta Gage, the first bedroom on the left on 5318 Annie Drive, Edina Minnesota."

At that moment, Greta started freaking out. She ran into one of her brother's room's and started shouting that she had been accepted into Hogwarts, he didn't care. The rest of the family didn't believe her either. But she believed it was true. Or was it some horrible prank, and she was stupid enough for believing it at all.