Chapter One:

"Wake up, Anneliese. It's time for school" my mom pulled the covers off my bed.

"I hate school" I rolled over, onto my stomach and put my pillow over my head.

"It doesn't matter. Get up, now, or else!"

I pulled the covers off, got out of bed and stomped into the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror. You could still see the tear tracks on my cheeks from last night. I pulled the rubber band off my ponytail and watched as my brown, wavy hair fell into its place around my face. My brown eyes still had a wet look to them. It almost seemed like no time had passed from last night till now. I sighed.

"This is as good as it gets, huh?" I asked my reflection.

"Hurry up, Anneliese, or I'm going to be late for work"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever" I shouted back to my mom. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and then walked out of the bathroom.

"God. Nothing to wear" I pushed hanger after hanger, not finding anything that seemed good enough for the last day of school. Finally, I found a pink tank top and a gray shirt with a large V-neck. I grabbed my favorite skinny jeans and went back into the bathroom, to take a shower. Combed my hair, put on my jewelry and grabbed my bookbag. There was no time for breakfast.

Life, for me, wasn't very exciting. Nothing exciting ever happened. Everyday passed by fast, the same things happening the same way as usual. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that my best friend was transferring to my school next year. I couldn't wait for that. And, the only thing that kept me going, day by day, was the idea of talking to him when I got home. He was my inspiration, the one good thing in this mess of horrible nightmares. I know you probably think that I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not.

My school, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, is a school of excellence. Or so they say. Yeah, most of the students have 99.9 averages and everyone there is filthy rich. But, who ever said that meant excellence? Does successful really mean having loads of money and being a brainiac? When did the world become so competitive and superficial? What you're probably thinking now is 'what about the students who aren't 99.9 averagers?' All those people are so much worse. Either they're wanna-be gangsters who don't care a shit about school or they're people who just have bad luck. Don't get me wrong, I like my school, but only as a school, nothing else. There are the few people who have normal averages and have normal lives, but I don't have the time to waste or the patience to get to know them. You can call me lazy, or just, plain intelligent. Intelligent not to get involved in all the drama of highschool. That might also mean that I'm not living my life, but who really is? Being popular, or rich, or a genius; is that living life? Sometimes, there's just... being normal.

My day consists of waking up wishing that school would just finally end. Then, waiting for a bus that never seems to be empty. Going to a school where the teachers are idiots and the students are no better. Having tests that I don't even remember hearing about, but that's probably because I'm not paying attention in class. Eating pop-tarts for lunch, walking through the halls alone, pretending to do work when I'm really writing to become a famous writer and wishing that it was 5:30 and I could talk to Curry.

Don't ask me why I call him Curry. I guess it's just this nickname thing between us. I call him Curry, because that's part of his screen name, and he calls me Ms.96. I don't exactly know why he calls me that, but I let him anyway.

Things in my life couldn't have gotten any worse, or so I thought...

"You're not going to be online anymore?" I asked, hoping that this was a joke.

"No. My mom thinks it's a waste of time. She thinks that I'll just sit at the computer all summer"

"What's wrong with that?" I felt tears forming at the corners of my eyes. Why was I such a crybaby?

"I don't know, but she has a problem with it"

"That's not fair"

"Life's not fair"

"Tell me about it" I looked into my bedroom mirror, trying to think of something to say to change the subject.

"I'll miss you" I finally managed to choke out. I don't think he noticed that I was crying. I was good at crying silently now.

"I'll miss you too, but what can we do? Parents have all the control over us, whether we like it or not!"

"I know, I know. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive this summer"

"Yeah, I won't be able to listen to you talk about your problems anymore"

I laughed, despite the tears leaking out of my eyes.

"Listen, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure" I wiped the tears off my cheek. I heard the click that meant that he had hung up. The tears started spilling over again. There was no one else I'd be able to talk to like I did with Curry.

Summer turned out to be worse than I imagined. I could hardly find anything to do anymore. My stories were suffering because all I could think about was Curry. I had tried to call him a few more times, but he never picked up. I was starting to worry about him, then I felt a rush of anger at him and then I finally accepted the fact that our friendship was over until next year. I just wish there was some way I could communicate with him. Someway to know that life was treating him okay. Since it was certainly not treating me okay.

Things were continuing slowly. I began to find things to do. There was this great website where you could watch movies for free. So, I'd been catching up on all the movies I had missed out on. There was so much to watch, since I didn't get a chance to go to the theatre that often. Curry and I hadn't communicated since that day when he told me about his computer problem. I just really couldn't understand why his mom had a problem with the Internet!

It was only a week into summer that things became weird. Every night, I found myself on the balcony, watching the night sky. There was something out there, calling to me, trying to send me some sort of message. I just couldn't understand what it was. Things became weirder as time passed by. There was always wind, whether it was morning or night. Most of the native birds were gone; there were no pigeons or sparrows in sight. Instead, owls were seen flying through the night sky. The night before my life changed forever, someone started fire-works. It began with a big spark of red in the sky, coming from the right. Then, another spark, blue this time, but coming from the left. And then, it just continued. Right, left, overhead, behind, in front; all of the fire-works a different color. People were obviously celebrating. Of what, I didn't know. I checked my calendar, but there didn't seem to be any holiday.

"How much more 'twilight-zone' can this become?" I asked myself, while standing on the balcony, watching the fire-works.

I woke up at 10, the next morning. I had been hoping to wake up a little earlier, but I guess that late night TV watching had some effect on me. I groggily walked into the living room, and looked around. The TV was off and no one was there. I went back to the bedrooms; there was no one there either. I checked the bathroom and the balcony, but there was nobody there at all.

"Thank god" I thought as I walked back into the living room. My grandmother was probably at the Center. I was walking past the dining table, on my way to the kitchen, to get some breakfast. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the mail sitting on the dining table, untouched. Sitting at the very top was a red envelope with the word 'Netflix' in big white letters. I walked over to the mail and took the Netflix envelope. I opened it and looked at what movie my sister had ordered. Bucketlist; bo-ring.

I was about to put the envelope back down and get some breakfast, when I saw a small white envelope in the mail pile. It looked like it was so full that it was about to burst, and it had my name, hand-written in clear, neat script. I took the envelope and looked it over. There was no stamp and no return address. How weird. I turned the letter back to the front. I hesitated in opening it. But, before I could make a decision there was a sharp birdcall from the balcony. I looked out and saw a black owl, staring at me fiercely. I looked at the letter, and then the owl, which had taken flight already. That's when it hit me. Owls. This letter was delivered by an owl.

"But... that only happens in... Harry Potter" I looked back at the letter. I opened it slowly and saw that it wasn't filled with paper. It was filled with a rich, dark brown powder. Sitting next to it was a small piece of printing paper. I pulled it out.

This should help you in the future. You will not fully understand the significance of this, but I trust that you will guard this with all your life. It is very important and you will find great need of it in the coming days. I wish all the luck to you, Anneliese. I hope that you will succeed in what hasn't been achieved as yet.

Sincerely yours,

Dumbledore

Dumbledore?

"Oh my god" I thought as I looked at the powder once again. This was magic; real magic.