Lucky. Lucky Keefer. What a curse of a name. I thought that very
thought as I learned my parent's newest predicament created especially pour
moi. My hazel eyes bore into my mother's head, giving her the worst glare I
could muster. I swear she felt them too, because she squinted her eyes shut
and rubbed her forehead in her general show of anxiety. Mission
accomplished. No wait, I still had this stupid "moving" ordeal to handle.
Yeah, that's right. Lucky Jessica Keefer was being forced to move. No,
Lucky is not a nickname. It is not an adjective in this case. It is
actually, truly, my own curse of a name.
Of course, as a child, Lucky was a cute, pretty name. It was unique. But uniqueness doesn't fly when you're newly twelve years old, on the brink of the teenage world and getting a real life. I was "Lucky" the cursed girl with plain straight brown hair, a freckly face, and a height problem. And now, a move to who knows where. Like I needed this right now! I had just turned twelve two days ago and I was about to attend the Salem School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Okay, not officially yet, but the letters were coming out any second now and I was just sure to get one. Really. My mom and dad are both Oregon natives that attended Salem, and they came out of there with honors and awards and all that jazz. They would just be crazy to overlook me. I thought this too as I turned my Death Gaze on Dad. But he was stronger than that. My screaming and pouting over the past half hour looked as if they had no affect on him yet. Crap. I folded my arms, fully aware of how childish I was acting, and put on another pout.
He sighed and pushed his small silver spectacles up his long, sharp nose. With that, his thinning mousy brown hair and tweed business suit, he looked like quite a convincing Muggle. Now the stress lines in his damp forehead made him look pure Muggle. I was impressed.
"Lucky. I really do not need you acting like this right now. You could not possibly understand the circumstances in this decision. We have to do this for the family..."
I drifted off; the last thing I wanted to hear was my dad's mumbo jumbo as he squirmed, trying to provide excuses for ruining my life. Do this for the family? Some family. My little sister, Melody, our spaz-out psycho cat, my incapable, nervous-breakdown mother, and a frail, but shrewd businessman known as Jack Ian Keefer. I glanced at my mother, who had stopped squinting miserably long enough to try to join my father's tirade by murmuring encouraging phrases like she knew exactly what Dad was talking about. Her blue eyes flitted around, searching the room for something; probably an escape from this boiling hell Dad was creating. Her round cheeks were flushed and blotchy from her nervousness and her kept attempting to smooth her wrinkled mille fleur blouse on her dumpy body. No mistake, I loved my Mom and Dad, but I had not reason to like them now. Or for a while.
Melody sat just on my left, her wavy, flashy red hair in a high, preppy ponytail. Her earnest blue eyes matched my mother's, except they were rid of constant worries and full of child-like dreams. Melody had no idea what was going on. Sure, we were moving, but her eight-year-old mind could not possibly fathom the wreck this was going to make of our lives. New house, friends, life. A new beginning that I am honestly too lazy and hopeless to try. But of course Melody had not reason to be worried. She had definitely inherited everything Mom had to offer; good hair, pretty face, good teeth, tall...it didn't end there. Melody was naturally outgoing, sweet and tolerable. In other words, Melody was sickening. And she's my little sister. Who ever called me Lucky has better reconsider this.
"...And with my new job, it just requires me to be present there, I couldn't possibly pass up this offer from the Ministry Headquarters." My senses perked at this. A new job, with the Ministry Headquarters? The big guys? I must say, as reluctant as I was to show it, I wanted to know a bit about this move now. I didn't want to move, but it didn't hurt to know what might have happened. I leaned over the table. "Dad, you got a new job with the Ministry?" I asked, focusing my muddy eyes on his face.
"Oh yes," my Mom practically jumped at the chance to talk about a field she could understand now, to contribute her part to this torturing conversation. "Yes dear, your father has landed a job with the International Wizardry Communications Department!" my dad grinned proudly and patted my mother on the back like a good ol' happy couple on TV. "You see Lucky, I'll get more money this way, it'll be a definite promotion in my business track," my Mom was nodding so vigorously that I was afraid her head would pop off. "I could not possibly accept without moving to accommodate my new job and business partners." He nodded, willing me to understand and stop being such a problem child. But I, Lucky Jessica Keefer, am just not that easy. There was still one huge problem that needed covering.
"And my school? Salem School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" I added, as if they needed reminding. "What about THAT?"
"Oh, Luc, that's already taken care of!" My dad looked surprised, as if this totally IMportant fact had just "slipped" his mind. I waited impatiently, already bugged thoroughly by my parents' earnest nature. "Luc, you won't believe what comes with my job, You see, as working at such an honored position in this Ministry Department," at this he turned to my mother and each of them flashed shmarmy sweet smiles. Ugh. "And with my need to perhaps, "be on the move" as you might say, my children are automatically accepted to the wizarding schools in the areas which I am serving. This is on the condition of course, that you were already to be attending a wizarding school." He whispered and winked, as if he was sharing a special secret that would make me forgive him because of it's value. Hmph. Like I never knew that I would go to Salem. But I was interested.
"Honi, you just wouldn't believe!" my Mom threw her hands in the air, as if trying to express that this was just the biggest thing since sliced bread. "This school, it is just the bee's knees! It's even better than Salem, why, your Pa and I would have been honored to attend Hogwarts, and we are just ecstatic that our babies will get to go there."
"Hogwarts?" I scoffed. What kind of name was THAT? It couldn't possibly be better than Salem. Salem was my home, where I was meant to go. Obviously, Mom and dad were just trying to butter this place up for me. I wasn't going to buy it. I folded my arms again. Never mind I had heard about this place from Bee, my best friend and witch-freak. She always chatted on about the international this and that of our world. She should have been Jack Ian Keefer's daughter. Lucky me. I tried to pull back in my memory on what she had said about it. Good quidditch team, I recall. She always blabbed about that darned sport. I honestly was pretty much disinterested in it. Besides, just because a school has a good quidditch team doesn't mean they pass in MY book. They could be isolated communists somewhere in Siberia that don't know how to spell, just how to throw around freakin' bludgers. Which reminded me...where IS Hogwarts? Where AM I living? The thought had not crossed my mind before, being as I was just trying to get out of the whole darned moving thing all together. But suddenly, the isolated Siberian communists seemed all too real. I felt sick to my stomach.
"Mom, Dad!" I interrupted there long-winded praise of this "heavenly" Hogwarts place. "Where IS Hogwarts? Where IS the Ministry??"
My Dad looked confused and shocked that I did not know. "Lucky, Hogwarts is in Great Britain. We're moving to London!"
Isn't this the part where I faint?
Of course, as a child, Lucky was a cute, pretty name. It was unique. But uniqueness doesn't fly when you're newly twelve years old, on the brink of the teenage world and getting a real life. I was "Lucky" the cursed girl with plain straight brown hair, a freckly face, and a height problem. And now, a move to who knows where. Like I needed this right now! I had just turned twelve two days ago and I was about to attend the Salem School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Okay, not officially yet, but the letters were coming out any second now and I was just sure to get one. Really. My mom and dad are both Oregon natives that attended Salem, and they came out of there with honors and awards and all that jazz. They would just be crazy to overlook me. I thought this too as I turned my Death Gaze on Dad. But he was stronger than that. My screaming and pouting over the past half hour looked as if they had no affect on him yet. Crap. I folded my arms, fully aware of how childish I was acting, and put on another pout.
He sighed and pushed his small silver spectacles up his long, sharp nose. With that, his thinning mousy brown hair and tweed business suit, he looked like quite a convincing Muggle. Now the stress lines in his damp forehead made him look pure Muggle. I was impressed.
"Lucky. I really do not need you acting like this right now. You could not possibly understand the circumstances in this decision. We have to do this for the family..."
I drifted off; the last thing I wanted to hear was my dad's mumbo jumbo as he squirmed, trying to provide excuses for ruining my life. Do this for the family? Some family. My little sister, Melody, our spaz-out psycho cat, my incapable, nervous-breakdown mother, and a frail, but shrewd businessman known as Jack Ian Keefer. I glanced at my mother, who had stopped squinting miserably long enough to try to join my father's tirade by murmuring encouraging phrases like she knew exactly what Dad was talking about. Her blue eyes flitted around, searching the room for something; probably an escape from this boiling hell Dad was creating. Her round cheeks were flushed and blotchy from her nervousness and her kept attempting to smooth her wrinkled mille fleur blouse on her dumpy body. No mistake, I loved my Mom and Dad, but I had not reason to like them now. Or for a while.
Melody sat just on my left, her wavy, flashy red hair in a high, preppy ponytail. Her earnest blue eyes matched my mother's, except they were rid of constant worries and full of child-like dreams. Melody had no idea what was going on. Sure, we were moving, but her eight-year-old mind could not possibly fathom the wreck this was going to make of our lives. New house, friends, life. A new beginning that I am honestly too lazy and hopeless to try. But of course Melody had not reason to be worried. She had definitely inherited everything Mom had to offer; good hair, pretty face, good teeth, tall...it didn't end there. Melody was naturally outgoing, sweet and tolerable. In other words, Melody was sickening. And she's my little sister. Who ever called me Lucky has better reconsider this.
"...And with my new job, it just requires me to be present there, I couldn't possibly pass up this offer from the Ministry Headquarters." My senses perked at this. A new job, with the Ministry Headquarters? The big guys? I must say, as reluctant as I was to show it, I wanted to know a bit about this move now. I didn't want to move, but it didn't hurt to know what might have happened. I leaned over the table. "Dad, you got a new job with the Ministry?" I asked, focusing my muddy eyes on his face.
"Oh yes," my Mom practically jumped at the chance to talk about a field she could understand now, to contribute her part to this torturing conversation. "Yes dear, your father has landed a job with the International Wizardry Communications Department!" my dad grinned proudly and patted my mother on the back like a good ol' happy couple on TV. "You see Lucky, I'll get more money this way, it'll be a definite promotion in my business track," my Mom was nodding so vigorously that I was afraid her head would pop off. "I could not possibly accept without moving to accommodate my new job and business partners." He nodded, willing me to understand and stop being such a problem child. But I, Lucky Jessica Keefer, am just not that easy. There was still one huge problem that needed covering.
"And my school? Salem School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" I added, as if they needed reminding. "What about THAT?"
"Oh, Luc, that's already taken care of!" My dad looked surprised, as if this totally IMportant fact had just "slipped" his mind. I waited impatiently, already bugged thoroughly by my parents' earnest nature. "Luc, you won't believe what comes with my job, You see, as working at such an honored position in this Ministry Department," at this he turned to my mother and each of them flashed shmarmy sweet smiles. Ugh. "And with my need to perhaps, "be on the move" as you might say, my children are automatically accepted to the wizarding schools in the areas which I am serving. This is on the condition of course, that you were already to be attending a wizarding school." He whispered and winked, as if he was sharing a special secret that would make me forgive him because of it's value. Hmph. Like I never knew that I would go to Salem. But I was interested.
"Honi, you just wouldn't believe!" my Mom threw her hands in the air, as if trying to express that this was just the biggest thing since sliced bread. "This school, it is just the bee's knees! It's even better than Salem, why, your Pa and I would have been honored to attend Hogwarts, and we are just ecstatic that our babies will get to go there."
"Hogwarts?" I scoffed. What kind of name was THAT? It couldn't possibly be better than Salem. Salem was my home, where I was meant to go. Obviously, Mom and dad were just trying to butter this place up for me. I wasn't going to buy it. I folded my arms again. Never mind I had heard about this place from Bee, my best friend and witch-freak. She always chatted on about the international this and that of our world. She should have been Jack Ian Keefer's daughter. Lucky me. I tried to pull back in my memory on what she had said about it. Good quidditch team, I recall. She always blabbed about that darned sport. I honestly was pretty much disinterested in it. Besides, just because a school has a good quidditch team doesn't mean they pass in MY book. They could be isolated communists somewhere in Siberia that don't know how to spell, just how to throw around freakin' bludgers. Which reminded me...where IS Hogwarts? Where AM I living? The thought had not crossed my mind before, being as I was just trying to get out of the whole darned moving thing all together. But suddenly, the isolated Siberian communists seemed all too real. I felt sick to my stomach.
"Mom, Dad!" I interrupted there long-winded praise of this "heavenly" Hogwarts place. "Where IS Hogwarts? Where IS the Ministry??"
My Dad looked confused and shocked that I did not know. "Lucky, Hogwarts is in Great Britain. We're moving to London!"
Isn't this the part where I faint?