Just Different
Alex sat in her room doing something she hadn't done for years. She cried.
Today consisted of nothing but everyone she knew making her feel worthless; everyone except Harper really thought she was evil. What had she done that was so bad? Her pranks were harmless, and she always came through in the end. If anyone was willing to hurt people it was Justin.
Take the first Wizard Competition for example; none of the spells she used would do anything but maybe give him a scraped knee, while most of his spells were potentially fatal. Lightning, fire; he'd even tried to melt her into a puddle; all because he wanted to be a full wizard.
When Alex did nice things it was because she actually cared, but when Justin did nice things it was because he thought he was supposed to. He was always very public about it; craving the approval it got him. He was addicted to approval; he needed those little pats on the back, the proud looks from parents and teachers were what he lived for. She didn't care what people thought. She didn't care that they said she was rude, or stupid, or useless. She had never cared until today.
Today her older brother had thought so badly of her that it didn't even occur to him that she always did the right thing eventually. Sometimes it took her awhile but she usually had good intentions, so why was he so dead set on her being evil? Didn't he know her better than that?
Today she realized that the one person she thought understood her. The one person she expected to always be on her side had whole heartedly believed that she was a menace.
Today everyone had acted like her being the wizard in the family was the most ludicrous notion ever introduced, and while that didn't hurt as much; it still hurt. It still sucked that no one thought she was good enough for… well anything really. No one thought she was anything special all because she wasn't the same as everybody else.
But to be special don't you have to be different?