Almost a year since I updated this. I should be ashamed of myself...
"Why does this stuff keep happening?" Heather thought as she handed her passport to passport control in Canada a week after... the incident in Washington D.C.
"You tell me. I knew re-introducing Earth to magic was never going to be easy, but to see it degenerate to this level..." Gwen thought back.
"Welcome back to Canada, Miss Aoki. Just a friendly tip though- the atmosphere outside is not the most friendly towards Magicals right now..." The Immigration officer said.
"I thought as much." Heather sighed. "Thank you for the heads-up, though..."
Heather collected her luggage and got through the rest of the airport with no problems, save for a few dirty looks.
"Welcome back, dear. How are you?" Her mother went forward to hug her as soon as she spotted her daughter.
"I honestly could be better. I really wish that all this crap wouldn't keep happening. People out there really want to maintain the divide between Magicals and Non-Magicals and are going to extreme lengths. The bombing in Desiderata Valley, the creatures in Washington D.C. going all Godzilla on us..." Heather and her mother soon reached the car and remained mostly in silence until they got home.
"You... This is your fault!" Jillian pointed at her angrily as soon as Heather stepped in the door.
"What's my fault? That you look like a dripping wet rat?" Heather raised an eyebrow at her older sister's current state.
"Some people at my university hate magic now because of you and other people like you! They decided to dunk me into the fountain! If I hadn't managed to struggle free, I'm pretty sure they would have drowned me!"
"As much as we never got along before, I would have never wished this on you! How dare you blame me!" Heather screeched.
"What's going on here?" Mrs. Aoki demanded as she took in the scene in front of her.
"SHE STARTED IT!" Both Aoki sisters shouted, pointing at one another.
"I DID NO SUCH THING!"
"SHUT UP!" Mrs. Aoki yelled.
The two younger women went silent.
"Now, calmly and without yelling... what happened?"
"I was at school, minding my business. Someone recognised me as the Earth Keeper's..." Jillian sneered. "...older sister. They blame her and her fellow Keepers..." She glared at Heather. "... for all the trouble that's been happening lately. That incident in Desiderata Valley, this thing down in the United States, other... suspicious incidents in between... Apparently it's all your fault and now I have to put up with people blaming me for your bullshit!"
"Hey! I had nothing to do with those incidents and if those morons had any sense, they'd know that! I'm a Keeper. I am now sworn to keep the peace between Magicals and Non-Magicals! Why would I do something that would jeopardize that? What the hell would I have to gain?!"
"You know, I used to think that you having magic powers and being some magical peace-keeper would be cool. That my little sister had finally achieved something I could respect. I actually defended you against people that called you a freak; a troublemaker. But it's actually turned out to bring me nothing but trouble! They were right after all!"
"Okay. You two need to calm down. I don't care how old you are now, that you're in university or that you have magic powers. Go to your rooms and stay there until you've calmed down and can be reasonable. Both of you. Now." Mrs. Aoki folded her hands across her chest and glared at her daughters.
"Fine!" Both sisters glared at one another before heading off into separate directions.
"Whoa. What happened to you?" Gwen asked as she met her brother outside the school.
His expression was darker than even hers could be when she was pissed off and even though she wasn't an Empath like Bridgette or Alyssa, she could sense the anger roll off him in waves. "Anyone could..." she thought.
"We had an interesting Politics class lass session. Very interesting... and I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT, DAMMIT!" he snarled as he got into the passenger seat of Gwen's truck and slammed the door so loud that Gwen thought it would fall off.
"Calm down, Matt. What happened to you?" Gwen stayed calm.
"We were just talking about Canada's political history in preparation for a test we have next week- end of Freshman year tests and all that... and the topic got completely derailed to you and the other Keepers!" he snarled again, fighting to stay calm.
"And what did they say about us that has you so pissed off?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.
"Pretty nasty things. They compared the attack in Desiderata Valley to 9/11 down in the States..." he growled.
"There's no question that they were both acts of terror, but what else did they say that has you so pissed off? About me and the other Keepers?" Gwen pressed. "And didn't your teacher say anything about it?"
"Mr. Novak was absent today so we pretty much had to teach ourselves for that class. They started to bring up conspiracy theories for the two events and compared them... and like you know that one theory about 9/11 that the United States attacked itself for whatever reason?" he asked as she drove down the street, away from the school.
Gwen didn't like where this was going at all, but she still wanted to know. She had asked, after all...
"They're saying that the Magicals attacked themselves to try and draw sympathy from more of the non-Magical population. That they only made it look like a bunch of extremist anti-Magical terrorists or something! That you're a terrorist yourself!"
Gwen suddenly braked- which was a good thing since there were no cars behind them.
"What?!"
"Exactly what I just said. The stupidity levels are rising, sis. Luckily, it was only a few weirdos that no one cares about who voiced that opinion, but hearing that people actually do believe that... You're not a terrorist! You can be scary sometimes, but blowing people up? At least the majority of the class called them out on their stupidity and began defending you and the other Keepers with your track record of good deeds, the fact that you don't rub in your magic powers to those who don't have them, the fact that you actually refuse to use your powers to make money... all of you, in fact. Well, at least, not here on Earth..."
"I feel the beginnings of headache..." Gwen moaned, rubbing her forehead.
"At least we have all weekend to hide away at home and recover, because I'm feeling one too, right?" Matthew said.
"Small comfort." Gwen muttered.
"Aww! Aren't you cute? Yes, you are. Yes, you are!" Bridgette rubbed the belly of the new Golden Retriever puppy that her mother had given her for her birthday a few days prior.
"I see you're getting along really well with her! Have you decided on a name for her yet?" her mother asked as she entered the backyard, having just returned from work.
"Yep! I'm calling her Leila. I think it's cute and it suits her!" Bridgette giggled as the puppy licked her in the face.
"Pretty name for a pretty puppy. Chosen by an even prettier girl. I can't believe you're eighteen already. It seems like just the other day you were a teeny little baby in my arms and now look at you! Granted, I never imagined the whole "my daughter having magic powers" thing, but I'm proud of you. And you'll be going to college in the fall too!" Bridgette's mother hugged her tightly.
"Yeah. Even magic couldn't change my plans to work towards my medical degree. I still want to be a paediatrician!"
"Not to mention that those little kids would be delighted by your magic tricks!" Mrs Summers giggled.
"It wouldn't be just magic tricks. It would be real magic!" Bridgette giggled again.
Leila yipped, drawing their attention to them.
"How about a little drive around the neighbourhood, huh? I think she'd like it." Mrs Summers gestured to the puppy who was running around the yard as fast as her little legs would carry her.
"I'd like it too..." Bridgette smiled as she picked Leila up and held her snugly as she squirmed in her arms.
Trudging through the house to find her leash, collar and a bag of puppy treats, she met her mom in the garage and sat in the backseat with the puppy.
"Alright then. Let's go for a ride!" Mrs Summers unlocked the car and Bridgette got in with Leila in the backseat.
"Where to? The dog park?" Mrs Summers asked.
"No need. A nice cruise in the car is good. Besides I think she loves riding in the car already!" Bridgette giggled as Leila squirmed over her shoulder, trying to get to the window and look out.
As they drove through the neighbourhood, some other drivers recognized them and waved, smiling.
"Cute puppy, Keeper Bridgette!" One female, slightly older gave a thumbs-up as she drove past.
"Thanks!" Bridgette returned the thumbs-up.
"It's nice to have a nice drive like this and not think of having to go anywhere in particular. The last few days have been... testing, to say the least..." Bridgette's mother sighed.
"Testing how?" Bridgette raised an eyebrow.
"Just some people I know... Making remarks about you. I don't think that they hate you really or fear you. More like they're... Jealous, I suppose. Of you and your powers. I have to admit, your powers are pretty awesome though. I think I'd be jealous too." her mother shrugged.
Bridgette tapped into her empathy magic to sense her mother's emotions, because she couldn't tell how she was feeling at the moment without it.
Her mother was... slightly upset, but not majorly so, she found.
"I won't push mom. If there's anything bad about me going on, I'm sure I'll find out about it..." she said to herself.
Izzy and Lindsay sat together in the common area of the Keeper Den.
"And then they just randomly swore at me for no reason at all! Mall security had to drag them out and they were banned from the mall for life!" Lindsay exclaimed as she took a sip of tea.
"Wow. I know I've got some crazies in my life but these guys seem pretty close up there!" Izzy exclaimed as she took a sip of soda.
"Hey, you two. What's up?" Gwen said as she materialised in the room, Bridgette and Heather in tow.
"We just came here to get a break from the craziness in our lives is all..." Izzy reclined in her chair.
Gwen and Heather looked at one another oddly, but quickly shook it off.
"What's up with you all?" Bridgette asked.
"Izzy and I were just talking about the stupid people in our lives that think that us having magic is a bad thing!" Lindsay exclaimed.
"Yeah. Somebody told me that my powers ought to be stripped away and me locked in an asylum!" Izzy exclaimed angrily.
Heather exclaimed indignantly on the Fire Keeper's behalf. "You might be a nutcase, but you've proven that you have complete control of your powers! You're no danger unless you want to be!"
"Umm... thanks." Izzy said, somewhat miffed by the backhanded compliment. "And anyway, my family and friends don't care about all that, so screw them!"
"Lucky you. Some people gave my sister crap at school about me and she comes home and blames it on me! Like, what the hell?! Did I tell them to give her a hard time? And the worst part was that she was okay with it all at first and she'd let some insignificant little people get to her?!" Heather practically snarled.
"My own mom hinted at people she knows being the same way with her. Me, personally... I'm not seeing it. Though we really should have known something like this was bound to happen. People won't accept magic here on Earth that easily... People might be afraid of us, be jealous of us... Those with beliefs that believe that magic is dangerous or evil might want to destroy all of us..." Bridgette mused.
"My sister broke up with her boyfriend because he was saying bad things about me. Like not things about my hair or how stupid people think I am, but really nasty things..." Lindsay pouted.
"Wish I had a sister like that..." Heather muttered.
"You're not stupid, Lindsay. You just... you've improved since we all became Keepers." Gwen said.
"She's still kinda stupid, but much less so than before." Heather thought.
"And you're still a bitch, but much less than before." Gwen retorted.
"Don't you ever forget it!" Heather smirked and the two returned to regular conversation.
"It's obviously clear that lines have been drawn in the general public as well as our families in regards to us being Keepers. We knew that it would happen, but still..." Bridgette sighed.
"This is even worse than being in Total Drama ever was." Izzy said.
"Right up there with fighting Radcliffe and his goons..." Heather said.
"He even managed to take advantages of the differences between us and make us and some of the other contestants go against us so drastically..." Lindsay said.
Gwen and Heather both got sour looks on their faces, thinking of Courtney and Alejandro respectively.
"It may get harder from here on out, but we have to stick together. Dealing with all this, all of us graduating high school soon..." Izzy said.
"Ah, high school. I'll miss running it." Heather smirked.
"I won't miss it at all." Gwen said.
"But we're all strong enough to get through this, right? I mean, we managed to pull through it all and get over our differences to work together!" Bridgette reminded them.
"Through thick and thin. We may never be the best of friends, but we will never let that come between us and our duties as Keepers." Gwen vowed.
"You bet." Heather, surprisingly was the first one to hold up her hand for a group high-five and the other girls obliged.
They were strong. Nothing was going to stop them.