September 20, 2008

Gwen's House; 8:00 am

Gwen rolled onto her side and stared at the blaring alarm clock. Usually, she'd turn it off and rush to get ready for her day, but today was different. She turned off the alarm and crawled deeper into her blankets. Today was the first day of her suspension from Karate and, unlike the rest of the week, she had nothing to distract her. She couldn't sleep last night because that was all that was on her mind. Now that the time has come she couldn't even bring herself to get up and take a shower.

A knock at the door caught her attention. "Gwen, it's time to get up." Not waiting for a response, she opened the door and scowled at the lump in the bed. "Just because you have the day off doesn't mean you get to slack off."

Gwen poked her head out to look at her mother before doing as she was told. She slowly made the bed then dragged herself to the bathroom to shower. A quick look in the mirror revealed the circles under her eyes from lack of sleep and stress. Thankfully the doofus wouldn't be up for another four hours so she had time before the teasing began. Throwing her pajamas aside she stepped into the shower and let the hot water rinse over her. If it wasn't for her mother yelling at her for wasting water, she'd probably sit in there until the water went cold.

Eventually, she finished her shower and threw some clothes on. Four months ago she'd have kicked her own butt for the way she was acting. A week ago she'd do it without feeling bad about it. She couldn't figure out what had changed in her to cause all of this. Unable to figure it out, she went downstairs to eat breakfast.

Her father was at the table reading the newspaper and talking politics. "The debates start next week and I'm telling you, Obama is going to bring great things."

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Frank," Natalie said placing the plate of eggs and bacon in front of him. "I'm just saying politics should wait till after breakfast." Placing a second plate on the table she motions Gwen to sit down.

Frank put down the paper and started to dig into his food. "Hey, there sleeping beauty. Didn't sleep too well?"

"Not really…" Gwen started to pick at her food, but couldn't find the will to eat.

"Sit up straight young lady." Her mother demanded. "I'm no chef, but I guarantee it tastes better than whatever you're grandfather was feeding you." Neither of her parents could cook to save their lives, but her mother tries to cook all the meals because good families sit at the table and eat home-cooked meals together. Of course, when the dinner occasionally gets too burnt to be editable, going out to a nice restaurant is always a viable option.

Frank got up and placed his empty plate in the sink and gave his wife and daughter a kiss. "Sorry I have to leave my two favorite girls, but I have to get to the office. A client is demanding we meet now instead of waiting until Monday."

"I need to head out to do some errands anyway." Natalie places her own empty plate in the sink as well and heads towards the garage. "Gwen, can you do the dishes when you're done? I'll be back in a few hours."

And with that she was alone. It wasn't the first time her parents had left her to fend for herself, but it just made her more aware of the fact she didn't have anything to do. She dumped the rest of her breakfast into the trash and washed the little dishes there were before returning to her bedroom.

It was just passed nine at this point and she needed to work on control, but she had no idea where to start. She tried to do a couple of warm-ups to psych herself up, but all it did was make her feel ridiculous. Why was this so hard!? She looked to her nightstand and was tempted to look through the spellbook like Ben had suggested, but that would be breaking the first rule her Grandpa had set for her and she was above breaking the rules. Instead, she worked on her stances, her punches, her kicks, anything, and everything just to keep herself busy. Nothing seemed to help.

"How am I suppose to improve if I'm not told how to do it!?" She screamed into the empty room. Another hour had passed and she was bored and tired from the repeated movements. In the past, she'd practice the moves until she couldn't move and she'd do it again just to push herself to perfection. That's the only way she could master it. Even the newer techniques she had been working on felt fruitless under the circumstances. She had no motivation other than to make her Sensei proud, but even then it wasn't enough to get her to her feet. She kept finding her eyes wondering to the nightstand.

"Ben, you better be right about this…" She opened the drawer and pulled out the pocket-sized spellbook. She spent every day looking through it and whenever she found a spell she wanted to try, Max would find them a secluded spot so she could practice in peace. Thinking back on it, she wouldn't have the privacy to practice and even then it would be even harder to hide the aftermath of the spells. Even the ones that didn't cause any do much could still cause some damage if backfired. Flipping through the pages she settled on a simple spell she knew very well. Putting her dominant hand forward she called out the incantation and a blue disc manifested in front of her. She was about to step onto it when it started to flicker and dissipate.

"Nonononono!" She tried the spell a few more times. Each more ineffective than the last. "This can't be happening!" She flipped through and searched for another simple spell. This one should produce a bright light, but after speaking the incantation the blue light was dim and soon fizzled out. Panicking, she ran downstairs and into her backyard. Hopping over the small fence, she ran into the forest behind her house until she found a small clearing. In a last-ditch effort, she called her mana in front of her to create a sphere before launching across the clearing. The bolt of energy made it halfway before fading into nothing. Stepping closer, she tried again and again until she was directly in front of the tree. Placing her hand onto the tree, she called her mana to her hand and put as much pressure into the tree as she could. Removing her mand she saw that she only singed the bark of the tree.

Gwen had her head buried in her knees and if you didn't know better you'd think she was crying. If the doofus was there he'd probably call her a cry baby with how pitiful she looked. She probably would do the same if she could see herself now. She was starting to realize the gravity of the situation. Not only had she lost control in karate, but she also can't control her magic anymore. When it comes time to go hero, she'll just be holding Ben back. She's become a liability. The thought was enough to cause her to tear up a little but she refused to cry.

Setting the spellbook in front of her, she got into a cross leg position and did her best to mimic the stereotypical meditation pose. She closed her eyes and started by focusing on her breathing and pushed aside all the other noises. Internally, she could feel something moving inside her. It was a warm, familiar feeling that built up in her chest and spread throughout the rest of her body. Focusing on that feeling she felt it spread across every inch of her body almost as if it was a second layer of skin. At that moment, there was nothing but her and the trees.

Reopening her eyes, everything seemed slower and she felt more focused than ever before. She performed a variety of techniques and stances ending with a sharp punch only centimeters away from impacting the burn handprint she left in the tree earlier. Calling the mana to her hand once again she fist to the tree and created a large hole in the trunk. With a smirk, she tried to call up the blue sphere again but was unable to call forth the mana. It seemed that in her current state she was unable to do any of her other spells. Even though she should feel frustrated, she was content with her new discovery and considered it progress. If she continued to work on this new technique, she may be able to return to karate without issue.

"GWEN!" A scream from the distance brought her back to reality. Running back to the house she found her mother panicking in the backyard. "Gwen! Where did you go!?"

"I went into the woods to meditate," Gwen said nervously. "I wasn't able to concentrate out here."

"Well, you must have been in a hurry to leave the back door wide open." Behind her mother was her Aunt Sandra. "I'm not sure who was more worried; Ben or your mother." Looking past them both, she could see her cousin blushing with his hand on the watch. Only when she stepped completely in did he finally remove his hand.

"Why on Earth would you go meditating in the woods?" Her mother asked bewildered.

"It was my idea!" Ben yelled. "She said she was having trouble at her karate class and I thought that if meditating helps monks in kung-fu movies it might work for her too." That doofus thought a movie trope could solve her problem!?

"Well if meditation doesn't work you could always join my yoga class." Aunt Sandra chirped. "It's super relaxing and between gymnastics and karate, I'm sure you could do all the harder positions down no problem!"

Gwen and her mother shared a skeptical look while Ben cowered in embarrassment. It was bad enough that he'd walked in on his mother while she practiced at home, but the idea of the dweeb in those poses made his chest feel weird.

"I think she'll be just fine, Sandra," Natalie said while leading her to the front door. "Anyways I think the kids would like to go play now so why don't you go off and enjoy some alone time and I'll drop Ben off this evening." At first, Natalie didn't like having her nephew spending so much time at their home. After a few weeks, she started to get used to it and even bought extra ingredients since he usually stayed for dinner.

"Alright alright, I get it," Sandra said while throwing up her hands in defeat. "Oh and Lili you really need to get on Facebook. I'm telling you it's the next big thing."

"I really don't see the point. You forced me to get a Myspace account and I'm never on there, why bother jumping to this new fad?"

"Don't come crying to me when all your friends are posting on Facebook and you're the only one out of the loop." Sandra waved to the kids one last time before making her leave. Once the door was closed the two cousins ran up the stairs to the bedroom.

Gwen was about to ask about Ben's bully situation when he spoke up first. "Are you okay?" Looking back, she could see that he wasn't trying to hide the worry on his face. If she was a little more clueless she wouldn't have noticed that he was using his right hand to keep his left from shaking. "When we got here, the backdoor was open and we couldn't find you! I didn't know if Kevin or Vilgax or some other supervillain came after you.."

Gwen's body had moved before she could even think about it. She found herself wrapped around Ben's shaking frame. They stood there in silence unsure what to say. She wanted to reassure him that she could take care of herself, but just a moment ago she was having a mental breakdown in the woods. Even with the new mana skin, she wasn't sure if she could win if someone did come for her.

"The meditation worked." She barely managed to get the words out, but it seemed to be enough for her doofus. He stopped shaking and had wrapped his own arms around her before pushing her away from him. Confused she looked at him and he had his back to her, but could still see how pink his ears had gotten.

"I told you it'd work," He said trying to keep his ego afloat, "You really need to start listening to me more. And keep your cooties away from me would ya!" He made his way to the bathroom to wash off her "cooties" and made a show off how "girly" the soap smelled. "I'm gonna have to shower just to get all you girl germs off me."

"If that's all it takes to get you to bathe then I should cuddle with you more often." She gave him an evil smirk as he gaged at the thought, but internally she was glad that things were going back to normal. Whatever normal was for the Tennysons at least.