Chapter
1
The bell rang and most of the class gathered their backpacks and proceeded to leave the room. Sam stared down at his class schedule. The pea green sheet of 8.5×11 inch paper listed the usual stuff: Social Studies at 8:30, Art at 9:15, Math at 10:30, Study Period, Lunch, Language, Gym, Geology. Seemed like a pretty normal schedule for 6th grade, but what Sam was most excited about was after school clubs. He had read online that Triad Middle School had a student magic club and he had been anxiously awaiting his first day of school to join and meet other people who loved magic as much as he did. He flipped through the papers in the welcome kit and located it:
Sam lifted his head of short brown hair and looked at the thin black hands of the Geology classroom’s clock. It was 2:55pm.
“Oh yeah! Let’s make some magic friends!”
He grabbed his backpack off the floor and stuffed the welcome kit in, zipped it and threw it over his shoulder and headed for the Gymnasium. Sam wondered if other kids who knew magic were anything like him. Were they seemingly ordinary kids just like him with a secret, or were they “out” with their parents. Did they have a familiar black cat or owl? Summon demons on Saturday nights? His mind buzzed with the possibilities.
At the gym at least a hundred kids were walking and chatting around large black folding tables. They were spread out around the big open space with high ceiling and basketball hoops at either end. Sam thought, this must be the basketball court for the middle school team when it’s not used for big events like this fair.. or meet and greet.
Sam walked past a table that had a large sheet of paper with “Drama Club” painted on it. Two kids sat behind the table. One was dressed as a knight in cardboard painted silver to look like metal. She yelled at Sam, “Hey! You look like just the sort of kid that would love to get on stage and pretend you are someone else! Do you have any interest in joining the drama club? We have a great season planned. We’re going to do the play King Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table. It’s going to be pretty epic! Wont you join us on and be part of the magic of the stage?”
Sam sweat-smiled, “Yeah. That sounds awesome, but the only magic I am interested in is the real stuff.” He walked away.
The cardboard knight sighed, “My confidence is not shaken! I will endure this small defeat!”
The other kid sighed and buried their head in their hands embarrassed by the girl dressed as a knight.
Sam walked past several tables searching for the one he wanted. Robotics Club. Soccer Club. Lego Robotics Club. Book club. Fantasy Book Club. Vampire Book Club.
He reached into his backpack and pulled out one of his favorite blue frosted bunny shaped cookies that his mother made for him. He bit off its ears one by one and then ate the head. The body could tell where this was heading.
His brown eyes grew wide when he spotted the table for the magic club. He muttered, “Queer Little Witch Club. That has to be it.” He thought to himself, weird name for a magic club, but that’s definitely it. He stuffed the remainder of the bunny cookie into his mouth.
Sam walked quickly to the table and stood patiently waiting for them to notice him. He adjusted the backpack on his shoulders. Two girls were sitting behind the table. One had long black hair and was turned sideways in their chair and getting their hair braided by the other one. The one doing the braiding had very dark brown skin and bright red hair. They both had dark skin actually, not that Sam cared. He just found it interesting.
The red haired girl paused braiding to look sideways at Sam, she looked irritated, “Um. Can I help you?”
Sam beamed at the serious looking girl, “I want to join your club! My name is Sam.”
The red haired girl sighed, “I think you must be lost. Wouldn’t you rather.. I don’t know..”
The black haired girl spoke, but didn’t look at Sam, “Perhaps he’d rather do volleyball. Is Sam sporty looking?”
The red haired girl studied the rather un-athletic boy in front of the table and shook her head, “No. He’s too skinny.”
The black haired girl said, “Hmm.. Then I’d suggest Robotics club. Sam would fit in there perfectly.”
Sam stammered, “No. I want to join the magic club. I can do magic. Let me show you.”
The red haired girl put up her hand, “Stop. Please no magic. I don’t want to see your card tricks. We do real magic here.”
The other girl nodded in agreement and waited patiently for Choro to resume braiding her hair.
Sam nod-nodded, “So do I! I do REAL magic. No cards or things up my sleeves. No sawing girls in half in boxes. Promise!”
The red haired girl looked deeply annoyed, “This is a WITCH club. Are you a witch?”
Sam looked puzzled, “Um. I do magic. So, yes? I don’t know what the difference is between witches and warlocks and sorcerers. Does it matter? I thought all the clubs accepted anyone.”
The black haired girl added with little emotion, and again without looking at Sam, “We are bound by the club charter to accept anyone who applies. And even if they aren’t a witch and aren’t gay or queer. Maybe we can use Sam to practice our spells. Just make them fill out the form and see if they even show up.”
The red haired girl shook her head, “I know we should include everyone, but do we really need to include EVERYONE?”
The girl with raven hair gave a short nod.
The other one let out a captive breath and then reluctantly leaned forward over the table and pushed a clipboard with a lined piece of paper with the words “NAME” written with a black sharpie marker at the top. She placed a blue ink pen on top with an irritated little slap, “Write your name, and note any pronouns if you have a preference, and your mobile phone number. We meet every school day except Friday at 3pm and Saturday nights at 10pm.”
Sam smiled hapilly as he wrote his name and phone number on the paper, “Thanks. What’s your name?”
She eventually replied, her eye lids lowered in annoyed by Sam, “Choro.”
Sam replied still smiling widely, “Nice to meet you Choro.”
Choro rolled her eyes. She then added with a quickly formulated lie, “And it’s customary to bring cupcakes or cookies if it’s your first time at the meetings.”
Sam nodded enthusiastically, “My mom makes the best bunny shaped…”
She had already turned away from Sam before he could finish his sentenct. She was already braiding her friend’s long hair.
Sam just stood there waiting for Choro or her friend to tell him more about the club. He was just so excited to be with other magic users, even if they were a little unfriendly. He had never met anyone else that could do magic.
Sam stood silently watching Choro carefully tend to the other girl’s hair, her small brown fingers sliding and weaving her hair into a perfect braid.
Sam extended his hand a little awkwardly in one last attempt to have a conversation with Choro or her friend if she would just turn and look at him for a moment.
“It was so nice to meet you Choro. I’ll see you tomorrow?” He said with a sheepish smile.
Choro paused her braiding and slowly turned her head, clearly annoyed that Sam was still there. She realized he wasn’t going anywhere unless she did something. She extended her hand towards Sam, “It was nice to meet you Sam.”
Sam smiled placing his hand in her’s, “Nice to meet you too! What kind of magic can you do Choro? Anything cool?”
She gave a wry little smile, “Teleportation.”
There was a bright flash of light in front of the QLWC table and a 6th grade boy suddenly disappeared from the Triad middle school gymnasium.
He reappeared 100 feet above the Triad Middle School Pool!
Sam screamed, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” as he fell towards the sparkling blue water.
Chapter
11
2. I Hope You Brought Cookies
The school bell rang loudly and Sam lifted his head of short brown hair and glanced at the thin black hands of the Geology room’s clock. It was 2:55pm. It was time to find his way to room 9C where the Queer Little Witch Club was supposed to meet at 3pm. Even after being humiliated by Choro the previous day and teleported into the air over the school swimming pool AND getting completely soaked he was still excited to meet the other members of the club. Hopefully they were nicer than Choro.
Sam found room 9C and pushed the door open. Okay this is strange. Everyone was sitting in pairs. It wasn’t just Choro and Chiro. There were 3 other couples of kids and based on how close they sat, some were holding hands, they were more than just friends who loved magic. They were all boyfriends and girlfriends and… THEY WERE ALL GAY.
Sam muttered, “I have never felt so out of place in my life.”
Xander left his partner Nate and walked over to greet Sam. Xander was tall and had long black hair and gave a big friendly smile and placed his hand on Sam’s shoulder, “You must be the new kid Choro was going on about earlier. I’m Xander and that over there is Nate.” Nate tilted his head to the side and gave a short wave. His bluish gray hair fell to the side of his face. Xander leaned close to Sam’s ear and said quietly, “Don’t take it personally what Choro did to you. She can be a bit cold at first, but she’s actually a really nice person.”
Sam laughed a little nervously but felt at ease knowing that Xander thought what she did was a little rude. “So is Nate your…”
Xander smiled, “Yes. Nate is my boyfriend. We actually met here in the magic club. We were the first two boys to join. We hit it off right away. He’s shy.. and I’m not. We just work perfectly together.”
Sam sweat-smiled, “Oh I see!”
Xander was still very close to Sam and said cooly as he leaned back against a student desk, “But you. You are a bit of a puzzle. It’s hard to get into the why and how, but you see there just aren’t a lot of… Well I’m going to be forward with this questions and don’t take offense. Can I ask, do you like boys or girls?”
Sam turned a bright shade of red, “What?! Um. Girls of course! I like girls!”
Xander frowned, “That’s what I was afraid of.”
Sam was puzzled, “Why is that something to be afraid of?”
Xander waved his hand, “Oh it’s not something to be afraid of I suppose, but all of us are gay as I’m sure you noticed. It gives us special abilities. I’ve never met anyone who was straight and did magic.”
Sam thought that was strange, or surprising at least. “But I CAN do magic.”
Xander was curious, “What kind of magic have you been able to perform?”
Sam said proudly, “I am a shapeshifter. I can change myself, my body into any form. It only lasts a few minutes, but I can become anything from an ant to a 12 foot tall dragon.”
Nate was listening attentively to the conversation and gave a faint smile. Xander’s eyes went wide with amazement, “Really? That’s amazing. So how does it work? Do you just think of what you want to become and…” He snapped his fingers, “your body changes?”
Sam shook his head, “It’s a little more involved than that, I have to do a magical gesture with my hands and speak the name of the creature. If it’s something really big I have to add some extra words.”
They were interrupted by the girl with cat ears and long pink hair wearing a white blouse and vest with a blue bow across her chest near her neck, “Nyalright. Let’s get started.” She stood at the front of the room as if she was the teacher.
“First off, meow would like to welcome our newest member Sam Koata.” She gestured towards Sam. Sam immediately felt put on the spot and smiled nervously as he waved towards everyone.
Sam said meekly, “Hi.”
Xander winked at Sam.
“Please make Sam feel welcome in our club. Meow’m sure he will become a valuable member in time. Maybe he would like to introduce himself and say a little bit a’meow him.”
Sam stood up nervously, “Um. Yeah. It’s nice to meet all of you. And my name is Sam. I’ve never met anyone else who could do magic and..”
Choro interrupted, “Did you bring cookies or cupcakes like I told you?”
Sam laughed, “Yes. I did.” He reached down and opened his backpack. “Just made a batch of fresh bunny cookies.” He pulled out a paper box and opened it and held it out to see.
Xander grabbed one and took a bite, “Mmmmm.”
Choro walked over and grabbed 4 and took them back to her seat giving 2 to Chiro. The other kids came and grabbed some too.
The girl with pink hair and cat ears nodded, “I should introduce meowself. I’m Beatrice and I am the club president. I run our meetings. Today I’d like to start with old business. We are trying to decide on a mew name for our club. I’ll start with open discussion of possible nyames.”
Nate raised his hand. Sam noticed his hair was an unusual shade of gray with bits of blue mixed in.
Beatrice pointed at Nate, “Nate has the floor.”
Nate spoke, “I think since there are half boys in this club we should change the name from witches to magic users to make it open to anyone regardless of gender.”
Chiro raised her hand.
Beatrice said, “Chiro.”
“Witches can refer to both female and male magic users. Second, I think our club should have a more impressive name. I would propose Department of Advanced Magical Studies.”
Nate rolled his eyes, “That sounds boring.”
Beatrice pointed at Nate, “Please meown’t speak without permission.”
Nate shrugged, “Just saying it sounds like we study and read instead of doing stuff with our magic. How about Student Magic Force?”
Xander nodded, “That does sound more aggressive. I like that Nate.” He winked at Nate who turned a bright shade of red.
Beatrice threw her hands up in the air, “I meownly ask for a little order at these things and it meoways turns into a free for all.”
Choro added, “And can we drop the word LITTLE? It sounds like we’re in kindergarten and need to have a teacher change our diapers.”
Chiro nodded, “Well said sweetie. Let’s drop LITTLE if nothing else people.”
Nate interjected, “I think the word LITTLE refers to the size of our club. We aren’t a very big club.”
Sam raised his hand.
Beatrice pointed at Sam relieved that someone would ask to speak, “Yes Sam. Did nyu have something to share with the group?”
“Um. I know I’m new here. But I was hoping we would do magic in this club. Are we going to do anything other than argue the name of the club?”
Chiro turned to Choro, “Please inform Sam that the name of our club is very important and is starting to divide this club and destroy it from within. We must come do a decision soon or the club will surely fall apart.”
Beatrice interjected, “Please raise nyour hand if nyou wish to speak.”
Choro spoke directly to Sam, “The name of our club is very important and is starting to divide this club and destroy it from within. We must come do a decision soon or the club will surely fall apart.”
Beatrice repeated, “Hands please?”
Chiro said to Choro, “And also tell Sam his cookies are delicious. I’d like him to bring some every week.”
Beatrice was getting visibly upset.
Choro spoke for Chiro, “And also Sam your cookies are delicious and we’d like you to bring some every week.”
Beatrice’s cat ears twitched very annoyed. She had enough. She made gestures in the air with her hands and her finger tips left glowing pink traces in the air and she shouted a magical incantation, “CHINMOKU!”
Everyone lost their ability to speak except Sam. The rest of the people opened and closed their mouths but nothing came out. Xander looked like he was laughing but no sounds came out of his mouth. He rolled his eyes and walked back to sit next to his partner Nate until Beatrice canceled her spell.
Beatrice’s cat ears twitched, “I must apologize for them Sam. They get quite excited debating the club name and well it always ends like this.” She walked over to Sam and held out her hand. “Can I have a cookie?”
Sam nodded and held out the box of cookies for Beatrice. She grabbed one and took a tiny bite off a bunny’s ear. Her lips curled up in pleasure.
“Nyummy.”
Sam smiled, “That was a cool magic spell. Can you teach it to me?”
Beatrice shook her head, “Probably not. Each person who can do magic is limited in what magic they can learn. Being able to do magic means nyou can connect to nyour magic source. Meow magic source is wind and sound, which doesn’t sound too impressive until nyou conjure a tornado or hurricane and then. Boom. It’s pretty epic.” She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows in an adorable way.
Sam smiled, “That’s so awesome. I didn’t realize magic was personal like that.”
Beatrice tilted her head forward a little and smirked, “So?”
Sam smiled. He finally got to show off his magic to a captive audience. “Okay here goes. Here is what my magic can do.” His face became serious and he drew a triangle and several circles in the air with the first two fingers on each hand and left yellow glowing lines floating in the air and then finally exclaimed, “Kyodai Doragon!”
Sam shape-shifted and transformed into an enormous dragon that grew through the ceiling and his wings reached out across the room far enough he could almost touch the walls. His tail swelled and stretched until it laid across the room between all the desks.
Everyone in the room was so amazed and would have oooo’d and ahhhh’d if only they could talk.