"What do you mean you don't have powers or abilities with one or more of the four basic elements?!" Coach Taylor crossed his thick hairy arms over his muscled chest, a black eyebrow raised.

i cringe at the mild disbelief in coach taylors accusatory reprimand.

only do i wish it was a prank pressured on by the other students. that would make life so much easier for me. (if only i could acquire something as mystical as a classification after purchase then i would be normal like all the other students with magic. sadly, there was no magic store. either you had it or you didnt.)

although he didn't know how seriously bad i felt at that moment i knew coach taylor was right. there had to be something seriously screwy with me if i still wasn't practicing incantations as a third level-grade witch or a female deity nymph. or one of the many other mystics that went to Abracadabra high. (and i couldn't cast a simple discovery spell like all the other third years if i didn't have access to my magic. iif i had any magic, that is.)

"Every person here has something their learning to master that will ultimately lead them into a grand coven." Coach Taylor pushes on. "So which is it that you can do; manipulate, shape and create basic elements of nature for a short amount of time; can you assume command over energy and matter to use psychic energy to influence my mind without affecting the physical brain, such as increasing my intelligence granting me the ability to think multiple things at once; or is taking control of biology, altering and creating the properties of a life form, giving me a third arm more of your thing?" Coach Taylor pressed on.

i wanted to groan. 

The way coach taylor reacted was as if i had some mortal flaw that meant i wanted to mess around with teachers or else i wouldn't regulate my fix. i wasn't a six foot tall faerie who was known to stir the pot. i frowned.  at least i didn't think i was. 

Major Taylor was totally not feeling it today and by my most embarrassing confession to outdo all confessions i may have just put a iron stamp to my name. at least until i found a coven. (i so knew i should have stayed in bed this morning.)

major taylor stared at me in a fierce hold of eye contact, my battle of will deteriorating as i looked up and held my own so all i could do was stare right back like his tall stature and muscular form wasn't intimidating at all. like i didn't feel about the size of a toddlers thumb just then. 

controlled fury emanated from his cobalt blue eyes, a quizzical look in those dark blue orbs. 

"as a third year student you should know what a claim like that means. Though pranking is not forbidden, -yet-," I heard him mumble the last word underneath his breath. then he continued on, "you shouldn't be doing it no matter how tempting it may sound." He said aghast as if the last thing he wanted to do was stand in front of me. 

Personally I think he was sick and tired of talking to me.  

Unfortunately coach Taylor wasn't buying it. 

All I could do was stare back like an idiot that didn't know what the basic natural elements were. (Geez.) 

And his scold. Well let's just say it was a scold to put other scolds to shame. " i know youre holding back on me, gerner, to get out of the physical education part of this semester. stop messing around and give me what i need so you can get out of my face and tell me right now what type of medium you have that way i can group you with someone better equiped to handle your abilities." he growled. 

(Great. now you just pissed off a master wizard.) 

i tilt my head up to get a better look into his eyes. "im not being superficial because i dont want other people to ridicule the color of my magic and its not a trick that i made on the fly just to get under your skin. when i told you im not pixie or hedgeborn thats because im not." (even though I wish I was because then I could at least fly away from Major Taylor and the rest of my snikering classmates.)

 i considered this matter private and i didn't outright flaunt my abnormality because i didn't want anyone to know. this was not something other students would let go of if they overheard. 

unfortunately i had no choice. 

i had to tell coach taylor or he would go through with calling the principle and coach taylor never made threats he didnt count on keeping. I couldn't have my mom know that I didn't have any magic. 

under my breath i mumbled, "its not unheard of that i dont know what i am." 

somehow coach taylor heard my declaration and just stared at me, an expressive hardness of severe displeasure written all over his face.

i may have acted like it wasn't important but the fact that i wasn't a witch, pixie, or fairie was troubling. 

It was unheard of. a big deal of epic proportions it was. Astrid Garder, that sometimes clueless girl with no influence on her magic. a freak. i mean, geeze, who did she think she was?

ooh. look theres Astrid Gardner that girl that brought down years of history all because she didnt have spraks of light shooting from her fingertips or control an element. 

i had nothing. no magic. zero. zilch. 

sometimes i wondered how someone like like me could even have a friend who wanted to do things like eat lunch together and talk in public.

"then why did you sign up for an extra curricular when you should be focusing on the beginner stuff instead?" coach taylor asked. he put his hands on his hips and blew on his minty fresh bubble gum. 

i shrugged innocently. "i thought i might pick up something along the way. You know with all these people and all...." I cut off

"fine." Coach Taylor huffed the black shirt stretched right against his bulky arms whenever he moved to the side. "theres not much you can do in this course. go to the library and from now on until i say otherwise thats where you will spend your time." He dismissed me

Without looking at the other students I walk away and put my hands in the pockets of my purple hoodie and follow the serpentine white linoleum tile through the double doors and outstide. 

i cringe when I bump in to the biggest cheese of all time and her pixie clone drone followers.

"Astrid." Kelly, The queen bee squeezed by me in her nasal baby voice. My ears popped. I fought the urge to scratch my nose and just looked at her with an empty stare waiting. "what are you doing here?" it was derogatory yet i knew what she meant. she was refereing to the p.e. building. (you know, where the magai exercised their abilities.)

"you know my name?" I ask caring

Kelly flips her gliterry bluie hair to one side. blue sparkles shooted from her fingertips when she made that gesture so that it looked like fireworks exploding on command. "of course i do. youre all campus has been talking about." she sneers. She lifts her pink manicured hands in the air and snickers loudly for everyone in the hall to hear. "the girl who doesnt practice magic." Kelly sings in satisfaction while her cronies jump in. Amber, Juie, and Gracie all mouth "priceless." 

i cringe. i just wanted this day to come to an end already. kelly flips her blue locks over her shoulder and went inside the gym. her drones gave me one last satisfied look and turned around still laughing at their joke. i put my head down and took a deep breathe. theyre gonne. finally, i could breathe. 

i pushed my hoodie on my head and followed the white linolium serpentine curve outside of the p.e. building and in to the quad. 

it was fall and the trees were wide and golden leaves were falling to the ground in hues of greens, browns, and oranges. the quad was a circular hang out where teenagers liked to stop, talk, and gossip. (ten bucks say they were gossiping about me. i didnt need superhearing to know that what hapened with major taylor was all over campus by now.) 

i pushed my fists inside my purplr hoodie and followed the serpentine cobblestone across campus and maneuvered around students that had stopped to text on their phones. it was break time for the first and second year students so they were hanging around the quad getting re-acquanted with their peers. They were wearing their appropriate uniforms that divided them judging by what grade they were in. So the freshman girls had on yellow plaid skirts, white collared button up shirts and white ties. While the freshman boys had brown suit pants, white collard shirts and yellow ties. Sophomore girls had on plaid green skirts with a collard white shirt and white tie. And the sophomore boys had on black suit pants, white collared shirts and green ties. While junior girls like me had on bile plaid skirts, white collared shirts and white ties. Junior boys had black suit pants, light blue collared shirts and dark blue ties. I was always envious of the seniors because they wore purple. It's my favorite color. Judging by the looks i was getting they were discussing my fall from grace. it was offcial, even with the first year students my name was a topic of discussion. Astrid Gardner, that freak who doesnt have magic. or maybe they were just surprised to see a third year in daylight. 

Abracadabra high was a school for the magai. if your parents were witches then most likely you are too and you would get a formal query letter inviting you to go to Abracadabra high. the school is sepreated into five main buildings that spread out into loose clustoers to look like a pentagram. there is the Math-English building, Science-History, P.E., lunch hall, and the library. to connect those buildings together there are cobblestone pathways that meet in the middle where the quad is and spread out to the other side of the lush green campus. 

lining the quad are big brown trees that stretch their limbs out wide while the cobblestone pathway runs trhough the quad and straight into the tother side of the lush geen campus. the leaves range in color from green, to oragne, to brown, to red. the lush green campus is filled with fallen leaves so that it looks like mini patches of dead foliage have squated and taken residence. 

Theres kiki hendricks. shes another third year student thats hanging around the lower classmates. shes a pretty brunette with green apple eyes. her boyfriend is the one thats sitting next to her. sam dixon. he's the hearthrob that kelly likes. i only knew that because i was in the bathroom one morning trying not to puke my brains out when kelly and her goon squad came in and started talking about how sam should be kellys boyfriend instead. all of it is really trivial becasue kiki and kelly are friends, like stick by eachothers side, watch movies together, best gal pals. 

kiki is talking to the girl in a yellow cashmere shweater. thats kikis little sister is samantha hendricks. sammy is one of my friends but id ont dare to go over there and introdice myself while kiki and her boyfriend are around. i get enough ridicule thank you very much and i wasnt interested in getting bashed after that coach (taylor) incident. 

i continue to cross the quad when i bump into somebody and the contents in my backopack go flying out on the quad for everyone to see. 

"oops. sorry. i didnt see you." i rush out an apology to the boy i bumped into. i bend over when i see all the contents of my stuff on the floor around our feet. i pick up an algebra book, a ruler, an open jelly bean bag, and some papers that i had to fill out so that i could work at the library during my off period. 

"here is this yours?" an arm held up my green notebook and shoved it into my face. 

i blushed when i saw what was next to his feet. i quickly grabbed my manga book and the notebook from his hand. i stood up and saw for the first time who it was that i bumped into. Shawn Billings. A fourth year student. icy blue eyes were staring right at me. 

i move the books from one hand to the other. "thank you. for helping me pick up my things. and again im sorry for bumping into you."

his full lips twitched ever so slightly. (swoon.) did he have to have dimples? "thats okay. watch where your walking next time." he waved at me and kept walking by. thats when i saw more third and fourth year students walking out of the school buildings and into the quad. great now i was late for history.