The World You Never Expected

Christmas Special! Three years ago...

Hello! This is Sarah/Alina! So, this Christmas I decided to upload a special little Christmas short. This is not in order, this takes place when the girls are in eight grade. Hope you enjoy!

"Aren't you happy it's break, Emily?" her mom asked as she turned down a different street. Emily nodded.

"Yeah! I'm just happy tests are over!" she exclaimed. Her mom laughed.

"Just wait until you have finals next year," her mom replied. Emily groaned.

"Ok, we're at Aunt Jackie's house now," her mom said as the car tilted back, driving up the steep driveway.

The whole outside of the house was completely covered in lights, swirling in intricate designs she mostly likely used magic to create. Tonight, Christmas, is when Aunt Jackie invited all of the magical family members over. Aunt Mia, Alina's mom, hosted a party on Christmas Eve, where everyone came. Christmas was for the magical folk. Her mom unlocked the car and stepped out, ugly Christmas sweater flashing from red to green.

"Emily, make sure to grab the presents," her mom said. Emily sighed and waved her finger so the presents floated after her. The two of them walked up to the front door and knocked. Aunt Jackie opened the door, dressed in an ugly sweater similar to her sister's.

"Sabrina! So good to see you!" Aunt Jackie exclaimed, hugging her sister.

"Good to see you too, Jackie! I see Sarah's all grown up," Emily's mom said. Sarah peeked around the door.

"Hey, Emily," she said, giving her cousin a side hug. Emily smiled and hugged back.

"Come on in, you two! I see you brought presents, how sweet! I'll send them out," she said, gesturing them in. She waved her finger and the gifts shot out to the people they belonged to, one landing in her and Sarah's hands. Sarah excitedly waved her finger to open the box, and inside was a book.

"Oh my god! I've wanted to read this!" Sarah exclaimed, excitedly hugging the book with a title that read, "The Hobbit." She lunged forward and hugged Emily.  "Thank you!" she said. Emily smiled.

"You'll have to teach me how to do that gift unwrap thing," Emily said. Sarah pulled a set of gifts out from behind her back. She handed one to Emily and one to her Aunt Sabrina.

"I'll teach you right now. Ok, so first make your fingers look like a pair of scissors," she said. Emily made a peace sign with her hand. "Ok, now wave it over the seam of the paper and act like your cutting it open," Sarah said. Emily pretended to cut her paper, and the paper fell off, revealing a set of makeup.

"I love it! Thank you!" Emily exclaimed as she excitedly hugged her cousin. Sarah smiled.

"Yeah, I have to give this one to Alina, too. We'd better go find her," Sarah said. Emily handed her new makeup to her mom and followed after Sarah.

"So, how's school?" Emily asked. Sarah shrugged.

"It's ok, private school is tough though. I'm going to a private high school next year too, Mom just decided," Sarah said. Emily cringed, she couldn't even imagine being stuck at a private school.

"Well, if you guys ever move up there to La Costa, we don't have any private schools! You could either go to my future high school, James High, or Alina's, La Costa High. Both are better than a private school," Emily said hopefully. Sarah sighed.

"I mean, I don't mind it too much, but moving up there with you and Alina would be nice," Sarah said. The two girls had arrived in the packed kitchen. People popped open beers and ciders with a flick of their finger, or played tic-tac-toe in glowing lines in the air. Alina sat in a group with some of their slightly older cousins, laughing wildly. Sarah tapped on Alina's shoulder, and she immediately turned around.

"Hey Sarah! Emily! Nice to see you!" she said, standing up and stepping away from the group. She hugged her cousins.

"Hey, Alina! I brought you this gift," Sarah said, pulling a large box out from behind her back. Alina smiled.

"Aww! That's so sweet!" she said happily, taking the box. She went to open it, but Emily stopped her.

"Here, try it like this," Emily said. She made the peace sign with her hands to represent scissors and cut down the box. Alina smiled as the paper undid itself.

"No! Emily, you're supposed to cut at the seam of the paper!" Sarah exclaimed. As the paper fell off the box, inside was a dress, cut completely in two. Alina took out the two halves of the dress and stared at it in disappointment.

"Alina! I'm so sorry! That was supposed to be really cool!" Emily said, heated with anger. Alina patted her on the shoulder.

"It's ok, I mean, you still cut the package open, right? It was an accident, I know," Alina said sympathetically. Sarah groaned.

"That was a really expensive dress, though," she said. Alina glared at her.

"I'm sure we can find a way to fix it," Alina said to Emily. Emily jolted up in excitement.

"Yeah! I know a spell! I learned it a few days ago!" Emily exclaimed. She took a step back and waved her fingers at the ruined dress. "Impetu," she whispered. Suddenly, from behind her, there was a sharp sound of shattering glass. She quickly whirled around to see a cider bottle, broken, spilt all over the floor. Sarah sighed.

"Emily, emantur is the word for repair, impetu means burst," she said.

"Ooh," Emily said. Suddenly, a spark ignited, and everyone turned around to see a sparking chain of Christmas lights that wound up the tree, hot flames of electricity sparking and lighting the tree on fire.

"I told Mom we should've bought a fake tree this year," Sarah said. People turned and screamed as the tree was engulfed in flame and began to light the curtains behind it on fire. A few adult magic users began to whirl their hands as water shot out, smothering the flame. Sarah was face palming as Alina was screaming and Emily slowly and awkwardly slid under the table. Aunt Jackie walked into the room, holding a champagne glass and a tray of cupcakes.

"Who's ready to part- OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED?!?!" she screamed as she entered the kitchen. She dropped the champagne and cupcakes and ran over to the curtain with a pitcher of water, dumping it all over the burning tree and curtain. The fire slowly sizzled out. Aunt Jackie walked over to Sarah.

"Who did this?" she asked her daughter. Sarah sighed loudly and pointed to under the table. Emily's aunt lifted the long cloth to see Emily tucked under a chair.

"Want to come out?" Aunt Jackie asked. Emily slowly slid out from under the table.

"What happened?" Aunt Jackie asked. Emily's mom was also in the room now. Emily laughed a little to lighten the mood.

"Ok, well, you see, uh, I tried to help Alina open her present, but, uh, I accidentally cut her dress in half. So, you see, this is the funny part, I tried to do a mend spell on it, but I accidentally said explode, so the bottle exploded and sparked the lights that lit the tree on fire that lit the curtain on fire," Emily said. Emily's Mom grabbed Emily's wrist.

"I'll be taking her home now," her mom said. Aunt Jackie stepped in.

"That'd be for the best," she said.

Emily's Mom quickly dragged her to the car.

"I hope you can come back soon, Emily!" Sarah said sadly as her cousin got dragged into the car. The two ladies stepped in.

"Mom, I'm sor-" her mom cut her off.

"Emily, honey, its fine . The house didn't catch fire! That's good!" Emily groaned. "Look, magic is a tricky thing. I don't expect you to get the hang of it straight away. You take your time, I'll be there every step of the way. We'll come back next year. After all, it's Christmas! I can't stay mad at you," her mom finished. Emily smiled.

"Thanks, Mom. Merry Christmas!" Emily said. Her mom smiled.

"Merry Christmas."