Amity tripped, falling down the desert hills as the disheveled leader followed, reaching into the air, and calling upon something long gone…

As the clink of ceramic hit the cold wooden table, and the chair screeching as she sat down hit her ears, Amity sighed. This was the second or third day with her parents out on vacation, and there were many to go.

The routine was boring, spending her days mostly alone besides talking to her friends in school.

The spoon dinged around in the bowl as she placed it in the mostly empty sink, then went to her bedroom.

Above her bed, where she laid pajamas as she changed out of them and into her usual school outfit, the calendar’s next day was yet to be crossed out. A mess on the nightstand concealed the red pen she used to mark it off.

The hamper screeched across the floor as balled up clothes landed in it, Amity not looking as she landed the usual perfect shot. She picked up a small chain from the drawer of her nightstand, pulling it up to reveal a blue star made from an interesting rock she had found some while ago.

It pulled a bit on her neck as it fell around her, dangling in front of her chest as she swiftly descended the stairs.

She picked up her pin-covered bag, dropping it on a stool near the fridge as she grabbed prepared leftovers and slid them into her lunchbox, placing it in her bag and swinging it around her arms. The door creaked as she slipped out, walking across a road before beginning her straight walk to school.

The gates were obvious, flaunting the somewhat well known high-school she attended, although they weren’t opened. She grabbed the gate and pulled - they’d been unlocked, but not opened before a few times, so she figured this would be another one of those times - but nothing happened.

A folding board sat near the gate, slightly out of her initial view (probably shifted from the previous night’s wind and rain,) that made the sole announcement that school was canceled.

“They really couldn’t be bothered to write a fucking email?”

The sound of her shoes on the wet cement leading to her house mocked the wasted effort, the mild inconvenience. A red shimmer caught her eye, the sun barely shining onto a brilliant red rock, not dissimilar from the one adorned around her neck in any way but color. She decided to discretely swipe it from the floor as she walked right next to it.

She kept walking as the rock kept barely glittering in her hands, examining it and thinking what she could do with it.

Maybe another necklace? She held it next to the blue one, the size nearly perfect for her to create a counterpart to the one she’d had for a while. It seemed to maybe stick to her blue rock when she put the two side by side, but she overlooked that. They shimmered in the same way, same weight and size, so she had it set in her mind what she was planning.

A cracked piece of sidewalk caught her off guard as it blocked her foot, sending her tumbling right onto her hands, directly into a puddle.

The rocks chipped, her necklace cracking into the water as some of the red rock came with it, splitting into the water.

“Sh- My necklace.. Crap…”

She leaned away from the puddle, picking herself up, before she noticed something.

There was a glow in the water where she fell.

Amity looked into the water. It shone a bright purple and swirled in clear surrounding water.

She tried chipping more of her blue necklace into the water, then some of her red. Nothing more happened on either of those attempts.

Then she tried both of them, and the purple glow got stronger.

“Shoot, that’s sick.”

She stood up, stepping past the puddle, but resolute in her plans for home.

At home, she put the necklace, the red rock, and a cup with some water on a piece of paper, as well as her phone propped up, recording what she was doing from above.

She used an old paring knife that was already due to be thrown away to scrape dust off each rock. It made an awful screeching, and it was incredibly hard, but she thought it was worth it. The pile of dust she made sat on the paper, and she put a few drops of water into it.

The purple glow came back, strong in the part dissolved in the water, and she added more in hopes to dissolve it all. She managed to do so, and putting her finger into the more concentrated solution resulted in a sudden feeling of hot and cold together. It tingled a bit as she mixed it around, spreading it into a circle, taking inspiration from some of her favorite cartoons.

Just when she met the ends of the streak into a circle, she noticed something. A fast light flung around within the circle, tracing an intricate pattern within the painted boundaries. It quickly vanished, just as it began, and left Amity puzzled.

A light in her head. My phone!

She grabbed the phone, opening the gallery and looking at the recording. The light was clear in its path, and she used the remainder of the magical… sludge… to trace the path as recorded. A single tap in the center, and…

The glyph brightly glowed in three colors. A red segment, a blue section, and a blinding white section. She saw the red section dim itself first, followed by the other two in unison, before a slow pillar of ice ascended, stopping at roughly 3 inches. Amity was first amazed, and then realized what had happened. She had discovered magic!

Amity tried to connect the dots on how the glyph worked with little success, but she still understood just how incredible what she had found was.

Eventually, Amity gave up trying to master her existing glyph, but she did still want to get magic into a practical state, so she got to thinking.

Using different amounts of these rocks caused different effects… I’ve seen some other shiny rocks like these… Maybe I can find some more!

She also realized she was a bit hungry somehow, so Amity headed out, and near immediately spotted a new rock. Oh, wow, already. That was quick, this might be a quick walk. She grabbed the rock and pocketed it, a buzzing yellow rock with bright white streaks, and continued on her way. The fast food place was probably only 15 minutes away, so she didn’t see a new rock at all on the way there.

Amity’s order was simple, a double cheeseburger with large fries, so she was going to grab it and dip before she was called over by a familiar voice.

“Hey! Amity!”

She turned to see who it was, and immediately spotted a few of her friends sitting down at a table, with just enough free space for another person, so Amity went over and sat down.

“Yo, Himiko! What’s up girl! Why didn’t you tell me you were meeting up here?” she asked.

“Oh, shoot, sorry, I thought I told someone to text you to come over…”, said as Himiko lightly elbowed the person sitting beside her, Raleigh.

“Hey, relax, I told you I didn’t bring my phone and you said you would do it!”

“Don’t worry about it Ray, I still made it here, seemingly pretty early into your meal too, so it’s fine.”

Amity stood back up at the beckoning of the cashier to grab her food, and as she came back Raleigh was laughing while Himiko was getting frustrated.

“Yo, what’s up? What joke did I miss?”

“It wasn’t a joke, it was just mean! He was telling me I’ll never be a witch, that magic doesn’t exist.”

Himiko pouted. Amity thought about whether to reveal what she had found just a half hour earlier but she decided against it as it would probably get them kicked out of the restaurant.

“Raleigh, stop being mean. Himiko, are you guys doing anything after this?”

Himiko responded with “Uh, I don’t think so… Katie? Did you have anything planned?”

Katie looked up from her phone and shook her head,

“No, I didn’t have anything. Amity, were you gonna ask us to do anything?”

“I was gonna have you guys come over, it’s semi-related to what you guys were saying while I was grabbing my stuff. Is that cool with you all?” They all responded with general approval. Probably 20 minutes after Amity grabbed her food, they all finished with their food and went out to make their way to her house. Himiko was the first to talk after they left,

“So, why are we going to your house? What are we doing?”

“You’ll see…” Amity noticed a smooth, deep green rock in the grass on the sidewalk. Picking it up, she continued with “Here’s a hint; this is probably gonna be important.”

They arrived at the doorstep, and the sole key holder unlocked the door to let her friends in, instructing them to wait in the kitchen. Once Amity was inside, she pulled out the two rocks she grabbed, and threw them onto the counter as she went to the cabinet to pull out a shot glass and she filled it halfway with tap water.

“Yo, Amity, what are you doing?”

“Just give me a sec.”

She placed it onto the counter and grabbed the still dirty paring knife dropped on the desk. Amity chipped away a bit of the red rock, and then a bit of the blue. She crushed them, then used her finger to brush the powder onto the knife to pour it into the shot glass. The girl stuck her finger into it, and stirred it, fighting the small shock running up her arm as the group saw the light run up it.

“Holy crap, what is that? How is it glowing?” were just some of the questions running through their minds. Eventually, Amity grabbed one of the sheets of paper stacked on the counter and began to use her finger to trace what was on it. Everyone watched, the distinct design slowly coming to life, then Amity tapped it. She stepped back, and eventually everyone but her freaked out as they saw a pillar of ice, this time probably a foot tall and half that wide, rose up from the paper, sucking all the ink off of it to fuel its progress.

“Holy Fucking Shit Amity, what WAS that?” was heard from Raleigh.

“Oh, you know what that was? Magic. You know what that means? You were wrong.”“Amity. What the fuck. When did you find this?” Himiko asked.

“Like an hour ago,” Amity chuckled, “I was holding that rock but I tripped into a puddle and it chipped into some water, as well as my necklace.”Amity grabbed her necklace, as well as the remains that had cracked off one of the corners, and showed it to them.

“My necklace cracked, but it’s probably fine, maybe I can fix it and it’ll look even cooler.” They all stood there for a second before Raleigh remembered something.

“Oh, shoot, I just remembered - Himiko, here.” Raleigh handed Himiko a $20 bill.

“Nice, never thought this bet would pay out.”

Amity handed Himiko a few sheets of paper printed with the glyph, then turned back to fill a small sandwich bag with some of the blue chips from the original carving process and then she used the bottom of the paring knife to crack the red rock to drop in there too. She did the same with the yellow and green rocks, then zipped the bag closed and handed it to Himiko,

“Here you go, have fun with it. You can use a bit more of the red rock to have fire come out too, it’s a bit dangerous though so be careful with it.”

“Wait, for real, you’re giving me some of this stuff? Thanks!”

“Yeah, no problem! I’ve got plenty. Alright, that’s pretty much all I had you all over here for, do you guys want to stay?”

“Oh, I might try to convince them to come over to my house, I got a new game and I want them to play it with me. Wanna come?”

“Eh, I kinda want to get how this whole magic stuff works nailed down, maybe if you’re still playing in a bit I may come over, I’m pretty sure I know where your house is.”

Himiko agreed, and they made their way out.