Roll With It Short Stories

Day Six

Word Count 20: 725

Prompt 20: There were many times where they had almost kissed, only breathes away but never meeting.

On the highest hill on Mangrove Isle was the Walford Academy for Talented Children and in attendance was Magnis Cartwright. Midnight hair, copper skin and an inborn grace that could not be replicated. Heddie Puck was petty, stubborn, temperamental and her shame in these flaws only served to compound them. Heddie was her antithesis, but to her unending surprise this did not preclude their friendship.

The first time had been in summer, just before vacation. It was hot enough that night that the girls dormitory had pulled their pallets onto the floor to lay beneath the open windows, which had them up whispering long past lights out. Heddie and Magnis outlasted them all, leaning their cheeks on the white sills, staring at the sky and each other. "What will you do when you leave here Heddie?" Magnis whispered.

"I haven't the slightest idea."

"You don't have any plans?"

"It's not so easy for me, Magnis. You're so talented. You could easily be accepted into the Queen's Guard." Magnis laughed quietly at her.

"It's not so simple. I have one talent, that I can barely control."

"I've never seen you so much as let a drop come through."

"I have to try very hard, Heddie. I'm so tired all the time." She buried her face in her arms. "Even as I sleep, I have to concentrate until it becomes second nature. If I let it go for a second, rain will start pouring down and it's always harder to stop once I let go." Magnis explained that she had been a summoner all her life, the gift of rain had come to her at only five years old. The call of a summoner is an instinctual one, so much so they often spend more time learning how to impede their powers than progress them. "Rain isn't a very useful thing to be able to call anyway. It's an inconvenience."

"Never doubt the storm." Heddie mumbled. "A sudden drizzle can become a Hurricane. Rain can end a drought and feed a village. It can flood and wash them away. Nothing can stop it."

"That sounds horrifying." Heddie took her hand.

"It's powerful, but so are you." Heddie's mind screamed, but became silent when Magnis leaned into her. The lightning cracked, startling them both.

"Oh no." Magnis groaned as rain began to blow into the room rapidly. Magnis and Heddie laughed as the rest of the girls shrieked to get the windows closed. It rained for two days, but to Heddie's disappointment neither of them addressed the moment afterward.

In their final year Magnis, to no one's surprise but Heddie's, had a boyfriend who she was seen around town with during the Summer. Lawrence Michaels had a rich father and richer sense of self-worth. Heddie never understood what Magnis saw in the boy and made certain to proclaim so loudly any chance she got. While not overtly hostile, she was never quite as pleasant when he came around. The Summer ended, just as Heddie predicted it would, with heartbreak. She had not predicted it to be her own.

"Why can't you be nice to him? He's not stupid, he can see how passive aggressive you're being." Magnis had pulled her hard around the corner of the bookstore.

"I just don't get it, Magnis."

"You don't have to, I'm the one dating him. You're supposed to be my best friend, you haven't even given him a chance."

"How can I?" Heddie's face boiled over. "You don't even like him."

"Yes I do."

"Not the way you're supposed to."

"Heddie!" Magnis had never raised her voice at her before and Heddie held her face as if she had been slapped. "This is the way things are. You have to grow up." Magnis softened, pulling the crying girl into her arms. "I'm leaving for University at West Lake."

"I know." Heddie mumbled. She lifted her head, staring into Magnis' eyes and again by some magic Magnis did not pull away. Heddie put everything she had into her lips hoping she could somehow make her stay, and the sound of Lawrence calling Magnis away shattered her. She felt Magnis' grip harden and then slowly fall away. Heddie had never cried so hard in her life and vowed she would never allow herself to be put in such a situation again. A vow she would break when she saw Magnis again five years later.