Hey! This is Jessica! Don't forget to review...
"Ice cube?" my dad called from downstairs.
"Yes Dad?" I called, completely embarrassed by the pet name and annoyed with my father's inability to leave me alone.
"Do you have a minute?"
"Not really Dad, since you're constantly knocking physics books over my head and quizzing me on the many uses of Ha-di, which by the way, there's only one flipping use!" I hollered down the stairs.
"Come here, I need to talk to you!"
"I don't want to, Dad!"
"You have three seconds before I call your mother! 3...2..."
I was downstairs at one and three quarters. Dad may be the nerdiest, least threatening man alive, but a hard glare from Mom will send shivers down your spine.
"Yes Daddy?" I grinned.
My dad smiled at me, and I focused on trying to make that puppy dog face that always makes him melt into letting me do whatever I want. I could tell I was on the verge of succeeding until I heard the sound of my mom screaming at my brother C.J. to stop setting his twin sister Amber's dollhouses on fire. Since C.J. was a fire elementalist and Autumn a water one, they had developed a recent habit of setting things on fire and then playing firefighter together when things got boring. "Carter Kane Jr!" my mother screamed. "How many times have I told you! We do not set things on fire!" I rolled my eyes. My family is an absolute mess. Things were worsened when my annoying 17-year-old brother Derek suddenly portalled onto the kitchen table. Even though my mother wasn't in the room, she still managed to know and yelled,"Derek, no portalling inside the house!"
Behold. The future Pharaohs of Egypt. Unless one of Aunt Sadie's kids shows some sign of future promise. Who are we kidding, I told myself, none of them show any signs of promise. My dad suddenly realized why he had called me and focused his attention back to torturing me with his terribly dorky ways.
"Isis, your mother and I need to talk with you. It's very important."
Oh no. This couldn't be good. Important in our family could mean anything from "Dad's lost his favorite Jazz CD!" to "We're nearing another apocalypse!" I braced myself for whatever could lie ahead as dad gestured for me to follow him into his study. Dad calls it a study at least, but it's really just the room where he keeps stuff Mom says is junk and needs to be thrown away. It's a storage area full of Star Trek posters, books that no one wants to read, beakers with substances Dad won't tell us about, and scratched Jazz CD's that he refuses to throw away. Oh, and it has a desk that sits like an island of organization in the middle.
Dad sat on the basketball beanbag chair on one side of his desk while I took a seat in the Harry Potter-themed beanbag chair on the other. It's very difficult to believe your dad is about to tell you something "important" when he's surrounded by bookshelves lined with action figures, but you learn to accept it.
"Isis", my father began. "You're 14 now, and your mother and I-"
He was cut off when my mother burst into the room, grimacing at it's contents before taking a seat beside my father in a chair shaped like a double-helix.
"As I was saying", my father continued. "Your mother and I believe it's time for you to start trying to...choose what you're going to do."
My mother nodded, her amber eyes betraying sympathy that I knew was sincere.
"Dad, I AM trying", I said. My parents were referring to the fact that I hadn't yet been able to choose my path as a magician. Even my younger brother and sister had already chosen to be fire and water elementalists, yet I, their older sister, could not find a path of her own. I was trying, but I couldn't really find any type of magic I was good at. My dad is an amazing combat magician who follows the path of Horus, despite the fact that he's hopelessly nerdy, and my mother is a fire elementalist who follows the path of Khepri-Ra.
"We know, honey", my mom said, reaching out to take my hand. "But you'll need to start trying harder."
My father exhaled heavily,"This is why we've signed you up for a few...remedial classes."
"Remedial classes?" I half-screamed. I may have not chosen a path, but that didn't call for remedial classes! Did it?
"Sweetie, it will only be until you choose your path! Then you'll return to your regular classes AND have become a proud fire elementalist!" my mother smiled.
"Or anything you want to Sweetie!" my father said, nudging my mother's shoulder. She didn't notice.
They can say that so easily, I thought, they never had to be ripped out of school and placed in remedial classes because of something they couldn't do. They were practically perfect.
"Of course mother", I said, almost cheerily. I was used to this kind of news by now. I put up a façade of understanding while resentment bubbled underneath.
"Aw don't be sad Ice Cream Cake!" my dad said, ruffling my curly mop of hair. He can always tell when I'm upset.
"I'm fine Dad", I replied. "Really, I just need to rest for a bit I think."
My Dad sighed,"Okay, Ice Cube."
I knew he would check on me later, when Mom wasn't around, but I decided to take the opening and head upstairs to my room. When I opened the door, I flopped on my bed and cried.
"Isis?" my dad asked.
"Go away, Dad", I sniffled.
My dad sat beside me on my mattress and lifted me into his lap. I reluctantly curled into his chest, and my dad placed his chin on my forehead and looked down at me.
"What's wrong Ice Cream Cake?"
"Dad, don't call me that."
"Icee?"
"That either."
"Ice Cube?"
"Definitely not."
My dad sighed, defeated by his lack of nicknaming ability. Sometimes, when he calls my mom his little firecracker, she burns him pretty badly. Literally.
"Isis, tell me what's wrong."
I sighed,"Dad, you guys already know everyone at school hates me."
"Is, that's not true. Anyway, why would they hate you? You're a princess! All the boys love you right? I should come to your school and kill them", my dad said, as he began to crack his knuckles.
"Dad, you don't get it. They think I'm an absolute failure. I'm terrible at magic. The only thing I'm good at is theory, and you know it."
"Isis, that's not true! You can do all the major spells, it's just the elemental magic you've got to work on, and the remedial classes will help."
I sobbed silently into my dad's shoulder.
"Hey, you know what, tomorrow, you'll stay with me. I'll teach you some cool combat magic!" my dad mimicked slashing a sword through the air, similarly to what he did when he pretended to play lightsaber with C.J. I still have trouble believing he defeated Apophis.
"Okay, Dad."
"Hey, let's go downstairs and get something to eat."
I rolled my eyes,"Okay, Daddy."
It was Monday. My least favorite day of the week. Mom was getting everyone ready for school, which for us was in the First Nome. Since we live in Cairo, away from the House of Life, we have to commute there for school and work. My older brother Derek kept riding his skateboard around the house, and my mom was snapping at him to hurry up and get ready for school. We all have to be ready by exactly 8:02, which is the nearest auspicious moment to 8:30, when the bell rings for first period. It's 7:59, and I noticed my twin brother and sister are arguing over who gets to bring what for show-and-tell today. Though they are aggravating at times, they are five-years-old and incredibly cute. C.J., even though he's named after my dad, looks like the male version of my mother with hazel eyes, tan skin, and straight black hair that he keeps cut into bangs on his forehead. My sister, Amber, looks like my dad with dark, warm-toned skin and curly hair that falls to her shoulders. Even though mom claims it's an absolute mess and often has trouble combing it out in the morning, her springy curls are beautiful. That morning, she was wearing a flowery headband and her curl's spiraled out behind it, making the headband look like a sort of crown.
"Amber! I want to bring Mommy's wand!"
"No! I found it first!"
"Well I found it second!"
"Where is Mommy's wand?" my mom hollered, tearing apart drawers and searching through cabinets looking for it.
"The twins!" I yelled, and my mom quickly took to wrestling it from their grasps.
I heard a crack that meant my moronic brother Derek had probably broken a bone attempting a kick flip on his skateboard. I awaited the ear-splitting scream. 3...2...1...
"Mooooooom!"
Yep. He broke another one. I turned to the living room to see my brother Derek splayed out on the floor, his elbow twisted at an odd angle. My brother's real name is Julius Iskandar, and we used to call him Jules, but when he got to middle school, he began insisting people call him Derek. I don't know where he got Derek from Iskandar, but he swears it's obvious. He's a combat magician like my dad. My brother has skin like my Aunt Sadie's that is different from the rest of ours, and his hair is oddly the blond of my grandmother, Ruby. His facial features look a lot like my mom's, other than his sky blue eyes that resemble my Aunt Sadie's. He's extremely conceited, and seems to be completely confident he is the next pharaoh. He uses this for leverage at school a lot.
I, on the other hand, am the ugly duckling of the family. My dad likes to tell me otherwise, but I know it's true. I have tannish skin, that doesn't exactly match my mother's or my father's. My brown hair is almost like my sister Amber's, except 1000 times more curly. This makes all the difference when it comes to taming it in the mornings. My facial features are a complete mix between my mother and father's. My mother's nose. My father's eyes. My mother's chin. My father's lips. It's always a surprise with me. Being the middle child only adds to the stress.
I checked my watch. 8:01. Looked like weren't going to make it. C.J. had just set my sister's homework on fire, and Derek's broken bone would make him hard to move. My dad was nowhere to be found, which was annoying the heck out of my mom.
"Carter Julius Kane Sr. you get down here this instant!" my mom called up the stairs. My dad tripped down the stairs in his usual cargo shorts and button-down polo shirt. My mom smiled at him before carefully pulling down the collar and picking something, probably lint, out of my dad's curly hair. I have no idea how my parents work. They just do. I've never asked how exactly they got together, but Aunt Sadie says it was mostly because my dad irritated my mom until she finally just gave in. This seems about right, because though dad is handsome I guess, my mom is gorgeous. Still, the dynamics of their relationship, I don't understand. My dad whispers something in mom's ears that causes her to kiss him before walking over to me.
"Ready for today?" he asked me.
"Yep", I said, summoning my khopesh from the duat after a few failed attempts.
My dad smiled at me,"Let's walk to the House today."
"Okay, Dad."
I knew the main reason we were walking was because my dad didn't want to have to stay and wait for my mother to explode at exactly 8:03, when the auspicious moment ended, and we were still at home. We walked out on the path and immediately felt the effects of the hot, Egyptian sun on our backs.
"Holy Hekhit!" my dad cursed.
"Maybe we should have just taken the portal with mom and the others."
We turned back to the house just in time to hear the bone-chilling scream of my mother as the clock hit 8:03.
"On second thought, let's just take the bus", my dad suggested.
I nodded in agreement and we both broke out in a run towards the bus stop.
Hey! Jessica again. That chapter might have been boring, but I feel like I needed to set the basis for the story so, yeah I guess. Review!