“CANDACE!” Nat was yelling in my ear.

“What? I kind of drifted off there. Sorry about that.”

“What happened? You were shaking pretty bad.”

“I had a flashback to the day,” I paused because I didn’t want my eyes to water. “To the day when Luke died.”  Then a thought came into my head and I turned to Brent, as I remembered his foot. “Brent what exactly happened to your foot the day at the hospital?”

“I sprained my ankle and my foot was really bruised and banged up. Do you not remember me taking off of football?”

“No, sorry I have a very short term memory. Did Doug ever apologize to you? Did he even mention the moment again to you or seem to be trying to find a way to kill you too?” I asked, as another idea formed in my head.

“Well he does seem to stare at me sometimes, but he has an attention issue and he can suddenly be staring at one place for a while.”

“I think that Doug was trying to be your friend and trying to be around you more so he could kill you next. He must’ve known you would be powerful and then he wanted to kill you so that he would get you out of the way before you learned about magic. For some reason Doug’s trying to kill our family and I think that he is a monster or ghost.”  I finished my idea and I was proud of myself.

“No, I never did think about that. How could I have been so dumb? Of course he would try to kill me or find some way that would weaken me.” He shook his head. “No wonder he was suddenly so friendly with me. I shouldn’t have been friends with him.” He looked so ashamed. “I can’t believe I was becoming friends with the person that killed my brother!”

“Well now you know, and just never talk to him again. He goes to a different school so don’t worry about it and just never talk to him again.”

“Yeah I don’t plan to.” I nodded. I always liked my points being right and if Brent accepted my points then I knew it was good.

“Did your foot by any chance heal really fast?” I was somehow on a role for good ideas.

“Yeah it actually did. For some reason it only took three weeks to heal completely and then I could play football again and it should’ve taken a lot longer, but I didn’t really think about it.”

“I’m wondering if maybe Mom or Dad came in and healed your foot, because they probably felt bad for you. You’d lost your twin and you couldn’t play football. They probably wanted you to get you to do something to forget about losing Luke, and I think when you have magic in your body you heal a lot faster than the average person.”

Brent nodded and we stood in silence for a few minutes. “Guys, I hate to cut this moment short but we really need to get going. We can talk more on the way to the airport, but who knows when Steve or Emma will wake up and then our luck they will come down here and we’re done.”

“Yeah you’re right Nat sorry about that. Nat do you have any cheerleading friends that would have a car?”

“Friends, no, but there are some people on the cheerleading team that do have cars. Brooke is probably the only person that I would have a chance at being allowed to borrow their car. Most of them don’t like me and don’t share very well.”

“Okay, I think she lives a few blocks away, right?” I asked. Nat nodded. “Okay, well we might as well go there since we have nowhere else to go.” So we began to walk to Brooke’s subdivision. Brooke had been on the cheerleading team with Nat for as long as I could remember and Nat and I sometimes talked her, but most of the time Brooke hung out with the rest of the cheerleading squad. She was sort of nice, but she was also stuck up around her cheerleading friends.

Then I suddenly remembered how Dad normally took a jog around a few blocks including Brooke’s every night in the summer. I guessed as soon as he woke up from his nap, he would go for a jog. “Guys, I think we should run. Dad will probably be coming soon for his evening jog.”

“You’re right, we definitely should run. If Dad sees us, he’s going to be so mad, and he’ll never let us do anything again. He probably wouldn’t even let me go to college.” Brent said and I saw worry in his eyes. I knew college meant a lot to him, and it being taken away would be the worst punishment imaginable for Brent.

“Brent, he won’t see us. We have a head start and we can run fast enough.” Nat said.

“Yeah and he may not even realize it’s the real us, since we made him forget about us leaving. He may think it’s just our clones.”

“We made him forget?” I saw Nat raise her eyebrows.

“Fine you guys did, but now we’re a team right, so we should do things together. I would’ve helped but I don’t have a wand.”

“Guys we really should stop talking!” I said. I knew talking would just make us more tired as we ran, and I really wanted to do this mission. To get caught by Dad would suck, because I had never been able to do things by myself or go anywhere. Nat, Brent, and I barely got to do anything since Dad and Mom were so strict. To be able to see the world and go on an adventure without them, that was kind of appealing to me and I was really looking forward to doing that.

We arrived at Brooke’s house about five minutes later and I was huffing and puffing. That had been too long of a run for me, but I knocked on the door anyways as I was trying to catch my breath. The door opened and I saw Brooke. I was glad that Brooke opened the door, because I was not in the mood to talk to her parents, who I had never met or seen.

“Candace and Natalie? What are you guys doing here?” Brooke sounded surprised. I guess it would be a surprise to see two people you barely ever talked to at school at your house.

“What about me?” Brent asked. I had forgotten about him, but of course he had to make himself known.

“Brent Brown?” Brooke’s eyes widened. I had noticed her staring at Brent before and then I put the two pieces together. Brooke liked Brent, and I knew Brent really liked Brooke. I always saw him staring at her. Even when the cheerleaders were cheering for him and his team at football games, he always stared at her. I was surprised that Brooke liked Brent; I didn’t know Brent was capable of getting a girl to like him, especially one of the cheerleaders.

I sighed. “Brooke this is Brent, and Brent this is Brooke, but you seem to know that already.”

Brooke grabbed my arm and quickly whispered something in my ear. “Are you or Natalie dating him?” She had almost an evil glint in her eyes as if she would steal him even if we were dating him. I knew she didn’t know me too well, but I assumed she knew my last name and I assumed she knew that I was Brent’s sister. I thought she would’ve known that Nat was pretty much Brent’s biological sister too, but she didn’t. It seemed weird to think that Brooke was really interested in Brent, but there was something about her look. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“No.” I whispered back. I wanted to tell yell at her and ask her how dumb she really was, but I figured that wouldn’t be very nice. “Brent is my brother and Nat’s step-brother, but she might as well be his real sister.”

“Okay, that’s good.” She seemed a little bit relieved but I still saw an evil, nervous glint in her eyes. Then she let go of my arm. “So what are you guys doing here? Is there supposed to be some cheerleading party or something?

“No, there’s no cheerleading anything anymore. We’re both down cheerleading for our school. We actually came here to ask you a favour.” Nat said.

“Okay, name it! I’ll try to help.” I was surprised by how nice and helpful she was being so far, but I guess none of her cheerleading friends were around so it was okay to be nice to the ‘uncool’ people like Nat and I.

“Well we were wondering if we could borrow your car.” Nat said nervously.

Brooke didn’t look surprised at all. “Sure, but I have only one condition.”

“Okay, say it!” I said happily. I didn’t think that would be as easy as it had been, but of course there was a catch.

“I have to go with you. I don’t have anything to do this summer and I want to go somewhere. So wherever you’re going I can tell you’re trying to sneak away and I want to go somewhere cool.”

“Wait, how do you know we’re trying to sneak away? Maybe we’re not at all! And you don’t even know where we’re going, maybe we just wanted to test drive your car since maybe we were looking into buying a car like yours!” I shot at her.

“Well you are trying to sneak away, because you’re asking all these questions. If you were just going for a drive then you would be fine with me coming, and if you were going to test drive my car, then you would’ve just told me that you wanted to do that because that’s the easy way out. Then there’s the fact that you’re trying to hide where you’re going, so I know you’re trying to sneak away and you seem to want to go somewhere far and you need a car. So I will let you use my car, but I need to come along.” Brooke sure was smart, I’d give her that. She had somehow figured that all out as if she had known right away.

“Okay, so maybe you’re smarter than I thought, but can we talk about it for a minute?” I asked.

“Yeah sure that’s fine, but you guys look really tired. Do you want a drink?”

“Uh sure I’ll have some water.” My mouth was watering and I was really thirsty.

“Me too.” Nat said.

“I’ll have a coffee please.” Brent said and I rolled my eyes. Brent never had coffee, and he actually hated it. He was obviously trying to impress Brooke.

“Okay, I’ll be back soon.” Brooke shut the door behind her and I turned to Nat and Brent.

“Who knew she would be so smart!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah I know she actually is really smart.” Nat replied.

“Well what do you guys want to do?” I asked. I figured we wouldn’t have very much time and we needed to decide.  “We can’t take her because she can’t know about magic, and she can’t go on the mission because it’s way too dangerous for her.”

“Well I think we should take her! She’s our driver and our ticket to going places for free. Who knows how far we’re supposed to drive, we need her.” Brent said, and I wasn’t surprised that he was defending Brooke.

“We can only go so far with a car, Brent. I have a feeling we’re going to be going much further than just the Olympics, and you’re just in love with her. This is why I don’t like anyone! You get all emotional and then when you need to make a decision about the person, then you do it to benefit them and not you and you don’t think right! We can’t have people risking their lives for us just so we could use their car!”

“I don’t like her!” Brent pretty much spat.

“You’re right, you love her. Sorry, my mistake!”

“Guys, who cares who Brent likes! We have to decide now, because she’ll be back soon.” Nat broke in. She normally stopped our arguments which was good, or else we’d waste so much time!

“I say no. We don’t want innocent lives being involved in magic.” I said.

“Yes, she is our free way to getting places.” Of course Brent said. So Brent and I turned to Nat who looked confused and unable to decide.

“I think we should take her. If we do we have to tell her to stay in the car and we can’t talk about magic when she’s by us.” Nat said. Of course Nat would side with Brent. The thing was it wouldn’t work. We needed to go on our mission and we needed to start. We couldn’t plan with Brooke there because she couldn’t know about magic and then we’d just be delayed by not knowing anything, and of course she would ask questions sooner or later.

“That’s a great plan Nat! She could just look out the window and be like oh what’s that? Is that magic?” I said sarcastically.

“I won’t say anything about it!” Brent said, completely ignoring my comment as usual.

I sighed and I knew I had lost the fight. We always agreed by majority and Nat and Brent would just have to see for themselves how bad their plan was. “Fine, I suppose I won’t either, but if something happens to Brooke it’s not my fault. I’m not responsible for her.”

“Sorry Candace, but we really need a ride and soon. It’s getting dark out and we have no idea where to go. A car is the quickest and cheapest way around.” Nat said. “After the Olympics she can go home and we can find some other way around, but we need to get started.”

“If you say anything about magic, then you two are done!” I threatened.

“Did you guys notice something by her eyes?” Brent asked.

I sighed again. “I know her eyes are real pretty aren’t they?”

“No, well yes, but there was a little tattoo there. It was a word.”

“Brooke has a tattoo on her leg and by her eye. It’s a weird spot, but it’s a word.” Nat said.

“No it was like one of the words you guys said when doing spells earlier.” Brent said again.

“Well you must’ve really looked at her eyes to see that! Her hair was down. I didn’t even notice that.” I said to Brent and he blushed.

“No, it was a weird word, it wasn’t English. I couldn’t quite make sense of it, but it looked weird enough to be a magic word.”

“Well if you’re so sure we might as well ask her to do some magic for us and see what she does.” I said sarcastically, which wasn’t a good idea.

“Thanks for the idea Candace, I’ll do that.” Brent said.

“Brent, she can’t be one of us. I’ve known Brooke for four years, and have been her captain all year long. There’s not something right about her, but she’s no magician.”

“Fine, I’ll just prove you both wrong and ask her to show us a spell or two and we can see what she does!” Of course Brent would be stubborn and wanted to get his way!

“Brent you better not!” I warned. “If you do-” I was interrupted by Brooke opening the door with a tray of drinks.

“Here you go.” She handed us each a drink.

“Thanks.” I mumbled. I wasn’t very happy with the decision.

“Brooke can you do a spell or two for us?” Brent randomly asked.

At first Brooke looked very shocked. “You’re like me? How did you know I was a magician?”

“You mean you are a magician too? Like you really are?” Brooke nodded.

“How did you know?”

“Well, I saw the tattoo by your eye and thought it was a magical word.” Brent said quietly.

She blushed. “Yeah, well you were right.” And all the tension that had been there earlier drifted away and I finally felt happy about getting help. We’d have another magician with us. We had found the fourth member for our mission.