Sarah's Surprise

Hey, humans. Today I have a short story for you. I hope you like it!

*****

I rushed out of the kitchen after my mom.

"Mom, you can't do this to me!"

"We're not gonna talk about this anymore."

"But I need that hoodie, mom. You don't understand."

"You should've saved up, then, instead of spending all your money on the same kind of clothes!"

"I need to keep my aesthetic alive! And it wasn't just clothes, I bought other things too. Anyway, that's beside the point. I'm suffering a great injustice at the moment!"

"Ha! A great injustice! You wouldn't be worrying about a stupid hoodie if you were going through something truly hard."

"But mom-"

"No. Enough."

My mom left the room and I collapsed on the couch with a grunt. My nails dug into the skin of my crossed arms as I sighed and pondered on this unfair situation. I had dreamt of that black hoodie since it came out a few weeks ago and my mom couldn't even begin to comprehend how crucial having it was for my life. I imagined myself walking into school with that hoodie, all heads turned to the Queen of Darkness (as a nice girl had nicknamed me on Twitter), full of black glory. That thought eased my mind for a moment, but all the wrath came back when I remembered what my mother had done. 

Albus, my dog, ran past me with something in his mouth. 

"Hey, Albus, what you got there?"

Albus pretended not to here and scratched my mom's bedroom door. 

"Come here," I called him. 

Albus came reluctantly and stopped a few steps away from me.

"Come closer."

He took a step forward.

"Albus."

He came closer and sat down in front of me.

"Drop that."

Albus lowered his head.

"Drop it."

Albus opened his mouth and a small pixie doll fell to the carpet. I picked it up. How weird. It was not rigid enough to be a doll. They really make toys very realistic nowadays. 

"Albus, don't go around stealing Josh's toys. Bad dog."

I stood up and went to Josh's room. He stopped playing with his toy cars and looked up to me.

"Josh, is this yours?"

"No way! That's for girls!"

"Oh my God, Josh, anyone can play with dolls."

As soon as I stepped into my room, the doll moved in my hand.

I let out a little scream and dropped it to the floor. When he hit the ground he made a small sound and rubbed the back of his head. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, you scared me," I apologized.

I kneeled down to pick it up and quickly looked for a place to put him. One of my old doll beds was lying upside down inside my closet, so I picked it up and put the confused pixie there. He laid his head down on the little pillow and closed his eyes.

"Um, you shouldn't fall asleep after you've hit your head that hard. Sorry."

The pixie opened his eyes and glanced at me, annoyed. 

"What happened to you?"

The pixie sat up and pointed at the bed, complaining. 

"Hey, I know it's pink, but at least it's a bed. All of you boys have a problem with 'girly' stuff, huh?"

Suddenly, the door was flung open and my mom stormed in with Albus behind her. With wide eyes, she looked at the pixie and then at me. 

"You are in big trouble," she said, shaking her head. 

I opened my mouth to protest when the words were stolen from my mouth. 

"It wasn't my fault, Carmela! She told me to drop the pixie and I had to. It would have blown my cover!" the Maltese spoke.

"Oh, and giving her a living pixie and then walking into her room speaking is perfectly normal, isn't it!"

"Wow, wow, hey. What's going on here?" I asked.

"Your mother Carmela is the Guardian of Magic but she hasn't told you because she's afraid of magic even though she knows it's completely harmless and you won't-"

"Shut up, Albus!" yelled my mother.

"Wait, what?"

My mom walked forward and sat on the floor next to me.

"Listen, Sarah, there's some things I haven't told you."

"Oh, I see."

"It's not easy to tell. Okay, first of all, magic is real. Not in this world, though. There's kind of a gate between the 'magical world' and the 'normal world.' I'm in charge of that gate. I'm the Guardian of Magic. This ancient title is passed down from mother to daughter."

"Okay, but why can Albus talk?"

"He comes from the 'magical world' and he has lived a long, long time. He was my mother's, my grandmother's, my great-grandmother's, and so on."

"Why?"

"Because I was in charge of them, and now I'm in charge of your mother," Albus answered.

I looked back at my mom.

"His job is to make sure that I'm doing my job correctly."

"Okay, so you're telling me that you control the entrance Fairy Land or whatever and a talking dog is your boss?"

"It's not that simple. I regulate the traffic between worlds and fix any anomalies so that neither world is ever disturbed. A Supervisor that looks over my work and assists me in my duties was assigned to me by the Magical Council."

"It's just what you said but in a more fancy way," said Albus.

"But wait. You said that it was passed down from mother to daughter," I questioned.

"Yes, but you were only supposed to know until your seventeenth birthday," my mom replied.

"So there's a magical world and you've never told me?" I stood up and put my hands on my hips.

"You weren't ready yet," my mom said, standing up.

"I don't care if I'm not ready. If there's magic you should have told me, because that's pretty cool."

"As the Guardian of Magic I have many responsibilities, and one of them is keeping magic a secret."

"But I would know when I turned seventeen anyway, so why keep it from me?"

"It's the rules, honey."

There was a brief silence, broken by Albus.

"Now that you know, you must begin your training."

Mom looked at Albus, her jaw dropped. I looked at him and then at her in the same fashion.

"No! I don't want to!" I protested.

"Too bad," replied Albus.

"Mom!"

"He's right, Sarah."

"But I don't want to be Magical Doorkeeper or whatever nonsense yet!"

"That's the way it is, sweetheart. We need to follow the rules."

"I can't do it mom; I'll screw up!"

Mom walked towards me and put her hands on my shoulder. "You won't screw up, Sarah, I promise. The women of our family have been doing this for centuries. They haven't failed, not even once, in the whole of history, and you're no exception." 

She hugged me for a while and then kissed the crown of my head. "You'll be fine, don't worry."

Mom picked up the bed with the pixie on it and walked to the door. "Let's go, Albus. And Sarah, please go to bed now. Your training will begin tomorrow."

She left, closing the door after her, and I stared at it. What in the world was I going to do now?

*****

I really hope that you liked this story. I know it wasn't that good, as I wrote it in a rush to have something before the end of the day. Fortunately, I barely made it. Tell me what you think in the comments!

Love,

Nan.

Update: shoot a lot of people read this story and it's really bad omg I'm ashamed sorry.