Phoenix

Chapter 1

The daydream seemed so real. The smoke of an imagined burning battlefield lingered in my nose. I shook myself.

I looked at the card held casually between my two scarred fingers before I flipped it onto the table.

Pete rolled his eyes. He threw both hands into the air.

"Man, Nix! That sucks," Pete said. He shook his head and started gathering his cards together. "You could let someone else win once in a while."

"Where's the fun in that?" I asked. I checked my watch. Lunch would be over soon and then it would be back to reality: Mr. June's trigonometry class.

"Pyromancy," Pete said, handing me the card I had tossed across the table. I took the card, forcing myself to look at the illustration. A vortex of flames enshrouded a cloaked figure. It made my mouth go dry. I shook it off, looking at the discolored skin covering my hand, the ridged webbing that stretched from thumb to pinky across the bones. Fire had no place near flesh. Especially not mine. Not again.

"Magic that derives strength from fire and all it consumes. Do you ever wish it was real?" Pete asked. His blue eyes were earnest when they met mine.

"What?" I asked.

"Magic," he said. "Do ever wish it was real?"

I almost said, It is real. That's what popped into my head.

"That's dumb, Pete," I finally replied. The bell buzzed loud in the cafeteria and we hurriedly tucked our cards into our backpacks.

"Hey, text me after school," I called. Pete waved in response as a flood of bodies carried him away.

I pushed my way out the double doors into the grey mid-afternoon. The sunlight already faded toward darkness. Cold shivered through me and I tucked my chin down into my Northface jacket. It belonged to my dad, before he died. It still carried his scent; Old Spice, and musk, and something indefinably comforting. I wondered how much longer I'd be able to breathe in his smell and pretend he was still alive.

Someone jostled me, threading their arm through the crook of my elbow and I turned my head in my coat, feeling the Gore-tex brush across my cheek. A beautiful girl walked with her arm in mine. For a second, I had the feeling I had never seen her before.

"Nix, can I get in there with you?" she asked, snuggling up to me. She wore a fuzzy yellow sweater with the hood pulled up. Her wavy strawberry hair floated like a halo around her pale face. She smelled sweet.

"Uh," was all I could say. Why a pretty girl like her would even talk to a dork like me, I didn't know.

Her name drifted up from the depths of my numb brain. Jewel. And we are friends.

"Did you get that assignment done?" I asked her. Though it was strange to me, it seemed like the right thing to say. It seemed like a well-worn conversation, picked up where it left off.

"I did," she said, rolling her green eyes. "And it made me dizzy. Circles, circles, circles. Took me for-ev-er."

I smiled a little bit at that.

"And forever was like, what?" I asked. "Twenty minutes?"

Jewel's lips quirked into a half smile. "Twenty minutes of torture," she said. "I hate math so much."

"That's only because you actually have to study for it," I teased. She scowled at me.

"I have to study," she said quietly.