Yes, My first Magic attempt! It was simple. Just put your hands in the bird symbol, then snap and say Camp Evergreen. I'm still nervous. I slowly follow the instructions. Hands in the bird symbol, snap and "Camp Evergreen," Why am I so sleepy? I feel my eyes closing, it feels so warm and inviting and comfortable. Maybe I could just....

My eyes snap open. Green light is everywhere. Where am I? "Ug," I groan. A flash of searing pain rips up my leg when I move it. "Mom?" I call, not wanting to move my leg again.

"Amber!" a worried voice answers, "We have been looking everywhere for you!" I looked up and my mom- or Lia as I thought of her now- gasped. "Your eyes," she whispers, "they're burning. Are you OK? We have to get you out of that fire pit." She said looking at me. I sit up and scream in pain. "Are you alright sweetie?" she asks, kneeling next to me.

"My leg," I manage to gasp. Lia reaches for my leg, but I scream, "Don't touch it!" All of the commotion makes Kyle and John come running.

"What happened to you?" Kyle asks, seeing me on the ground.

"Her leg must be broken," Lia explained.

"My mom helped out at a hospital, if you want me to get her." John offers.

"Yes, go quickly," Lia urged. John starts off running to a huge structure I assume must be the house.

"Is that the house?" I inquire, hoping to keep my mind off the pain.

"It's the registration building where you can get tents and sleeping

bags. I think that's where Aunt Dawn lives." Lia quickly explains. "Kyle, go find Aunt Dawn and ask her to call a doctor. And be quick about it." She told him. Kyle sets off running after John. I try moving my leg once more. That sharp, horrible pain is back. I grit my teeth. Finally, Reyna comes. She gasps when she sees my leg.

"This is bad." She states. Slowly, steadily, she lifts my leg up. I start to gasp. She quickly pushes the leg back towards me. It makes a sickening click. John comes running with a short man puffing after him. That must be the doctor, I thought. He quickly kneels with Reyna. He runs his hands over my leg.

"Tisk, Tisk. This isn't good." He said.

"Oh, please just get on with the diagnosis. What is wrong with my daughter's leg?" Lia said.

"She had dislocated it, which this nice lady here has taken care of," he smiled at Reyna, "she has also fractured it. I can take care of that with magic I suppose?"

"How do you know that?!" Lia demanded.

"I have been a proud member of the community since I turned 13 and I think you'll agree I have a right to know, Master." He retorted. Kyle cleared his throat and they realized the kids were watching. They both looked ashamed. The doctor said, "My name is doctor Fitzpatrick. You can call me Doctor Fitz," Kyle and I both chuckled at that name. I recover first.

"My name is Amber. Will you please fix me now?" I asked.

"Of course I will." Doctor Fitz said. He muttered something under his breath and my pain is gone.

I asked Kyle to help me up. When I am safely on my feet, I can see much better. I look at the giant building. It is very majestic. I start to walk to it and almost fell flat on my face. John had caught me.

"Thanks," I said. In my head I am thinking, he is so nice to everybody. How on earth am I supposed to know if he likes me or not? I sigh and try again.

This time, I am able to make it about 2 steps before falling... only to be caught again by John. Why do I feel so clearly where he is touching me? I wish I could stop falling. I try a third time and manage to make it about 4 or 5 feet before having John grab me again. This time he didn't let go. He just helped me walk the rest of the way to the registration building. I hate myself for needing help. But it was nice... I shook my head to stop myself from thinking too much about him. He is just distracting me.

What I need to do is find Jewel. I haven't seen her since, well, since I had fed her this morning. I wonder if she is missing me. From the position of the sun, it is about to be 5:00. It is late. I wonder how long I had been unconscious. "Hey mom, how long were you guys looking for me?" I ask.

"About 3-4 hours," she responds. I had been unconscious from 8:00AM to about 1:00PM! I can't believe it.

"What time is it?" I ask uncertainly.

"Here it is about 5:00, but back home it is about 2:00. But here is home now. Aunt Dawn will certainly welcome us. I can't imagine how happy she must be to see you kids. Last time she saw you, Kyle was 3 and Amber, you were in my belly!" she sighed. "Good old times. But now is the present and we will seize it." I think about what mom had said.

"When will I be able to start real magic training?" I ask.

"When we find out what your base magic is. Mine is earth, you know. My mother told me that it represented me in a way. Earth is stubborn and hard. But it is always there. When you find the right combination, it can be beautiful and life giving. I guess your father

was the right combination." Her eyes drift off, lost in old memories. I gasped. I knew what my base magic was!

"Mom! My base magic is fire!" I yelled.

"What?" she asked startled.

"My base magic is fire, I know it! You said that when you looked at me, you saw fire in my eyes. I landed in a fire pit when I transported. Don't you see? Even my red hair is a clue!" I explain.

"Your hair is the same as the rest of your siblings. You get that from your father's side. But you do make an interesting point. I will give you the element quiz as soon as we get to our room." She reasons.

I smile. I can always count on my mother to be the force of reason. We have almost reached the building when the door flies open; In the middle of the doorway stands a gray-haired woman. She is wearing a blue cooking apron over a faded purple dress. I suddenly remember that she is my mother's aunt. So she is my Great Aunt. I wonder if she has any children. She looks around and spots us.

"Hello everyone! I am simply delighted to have you here with me today. Amber how is that leg?" she asks.

"Hello Aunt Dawn! We are delighted to be here. How is Uncle Bob's leg? Amber's was dislocated and it was also fractured. Oh, and this is John's mother Reyna." Lia responded.

I look at Aunt Dawn closely. She has red streaks in her silvery hair. I realize her hair must have been red before it turned gray. She has kind blue eyes like my mother. I sigh. Green eyes are another trait that I inherited from my father. I think it is strange that both my dad and my great aunt have red hair. I suppose it made it all the more likely for me to have red hair. I wonder if my children will have red hair because of my dad. I heard it usually

skips a generation. Kyle clears his throat, breaking my train of thought.

"What?" I ask, realizing that Aunt Dawn had been talking the entire time. She just laughs.

"You are just like me when I was your age. Always thinking... I was just saying that we are going to have barbecued ribs tonight and I was wondering if you would like onion rings or corn on the cob." She smiles at me.

"Um, can we have both? Or is that not an option? Because if It isn't then we can just have onion rings..." I trailed off, realizing she's laughing again.

"Oh, sugar we can have both. You sound like your Uncle Bob, Always wanting more food. You have a little bit of everybody in you missy. I reckon your brother would like both side dishes as well." She shoots a glance at my brother. He turns a little pink in the cheeks at this statement. "Oh, and John here would probably like that as well. Teenage boys can never get enough food!" she chuckles.

I wonder if she is aware how embarrassed the boys are. It's one thing to be fussed over by someone's mother or grandma. But being fussed over by someone's great aunt who you've never met? That's something entirely different... especially since we haven't seen her in about 13 years.

"When are we going to see our rooms?" I ask her.

"Rooms? When I am finished learning all about you and can sufficiently decorate your room to your personality." She said. Wow. She sure does care about detail. Man! This means I'll have to wait even longer for mom to let me take the element quiz.

"Can Kyle, Amber and I explore out here while you are making

dinner?" John asked.

"Oh, so you're adventurers as well? I think that should be something good to add to your rooms. Yes, you can explore. John, do you and Kyle want to share a room?" she responds. Kyle and John look at each other.

"Yes," they answer at the same time. We all head off to explore. The first thing we find is the tree house. It has been moved to a giant maple tree just beyond the garden. It looks very majestic there. When we move on, we find the camping grounds are just a little while away from there. They are in a large clearing that connects to the house by a small path. There are only 2 tents camped there currently.

We move on. We find the animal sanctuary for injured wildlife. It houses a deer that has a torn leg and a bird with a broken wing. The deer's name is beauty, because it is a beautiful fawn. The bird's name is Jay because he is a vibrant blue jay. We hear a bell in the distance and head for the registration building. When we get inside, we find Reyna waiting.

"This way," she says. She leads us to a small hallway. At the end is a big dining room. There are barbecued ribs, onion rings, corn on the cob and about every sauce imaginable. I sit down at the seat next to Kyle and grab some onion rings. I put a piece of corn on the cob on my plate and mom hands me the ribs. I was skeptical about all of the sauces at first, but I soon find the tartar sauce and the ketchup. I dig into the hearty meal. I love every second of it. When I finish I sit back in my chair.

"Aunt Dawn, you are the best at cooking!" I tell her enthusiastically.

"Don't flatter me child. I do my best and that is all." She answers, blushing.

"No, really! You are great at cooking!" Kyle adds.

"Mm, hm!" John agrees with his mouth full.

"You really do make the best meals, Aunt Dawn." Lia agrees.

"You made it so good that I am stuffed to the brim. I'd like to lie down." I say. Aunt Dawn nods her consent. Mom and I both rise from the table.

I head upstairs and immediately see the door with my name on it. I walked in. It had been painted purple and blue. It has posters of dragons on the walls and a four poster bed. Inside it, it looks as if you could see the stars. My dressers are bright green and the knobs are a matching blue. All my stuff has been moved into the drawers. I look at the eggplant purple mixed with the ocean blue and the bright green. It is just right. I notice a map of the grounds on one wall. I smile; some adventurer's touch indeed. I love my new room.

"Honey, I think we can use this table right here for the elements quiz." Mom told me. I look at the center of the room and see a round, polished wood table. I also notice a walk in closet and a window seat. I sit down on one of the stools next to the table.

Mom concentrates, and a rock appears on the table, as did a flickering candle and a pitcher full of water. She set the rock on the table before me. She tells me to concentrate on it. I look at it and I notice it is standing on its side. I concentrate, but no matter how hard I try, it would not flip onto its flat side.

She sighs and replaces it with the pitcher of water. I look at it and see that it is full to the brim. But it has a pocket of air at the bottom, preventing it from laying the way it is supposed to. I concentrate on making the air bubble float up to the top as it is supposed to. Eventually, Lia takes that away too. She replaces it

with the flickering candle.

I can tell the flame is going to die. The oxygen isn't getting to it the way it was supposed to. I concentrate on getting the oxygen to the flame. Letting it feed, letting it grow. It gets to the point of a regular candle flame, and keeps going. It grows bigger until Lia places a hand on my shoulder and I let it return to a normal flame. I look at my mom and I told her, "I told you so." She smiles and nods. I ask her, "Can I go tell Kyle?"

"I suppose so," she agrees. I ran downstairs as fast as I could.

"My base magic is fire!"I announce. Everyone turned to look at me.

"What?! How did you figure that out, hm? You know, if your base magic is fire, then so is mine," Kyle demands. Lia comes down just in time to hear this.

"It's true. We did the test and your base magic is fire," Lia confirms. Kyle is momentarily speechless.

"Why did Amber get to do it? Why not me? Am I not important enough? Did you think she could do it better? Or did you think I wouldn't be able to hold my tongue? She is younger than me. I am the older sibling here. I was supposed to find out about it. She just got introduced to magic. I have known about it for 3 years now. I'm tired of being put after Amber and everybody else. I just wish you would pay attention to me other than to scold me. I never get to do anything. All you care about is your precious daughter. What about me? I hate her! You paid attention to me before she was born. You broke your promise! I can't take it anymore!" he yells.

I am shocked. I never knew how strongly he felt before now. He had always been my older brother, mischief maker and sometimes my best friend. I never thought mom ever paid attention to me more than him. We just had girl days sometimes.

Sometimes it was hard for me without an older sister in the house. I just had an older brother and a younger sister. I never had anyone to look up to other than my mom. I had to be a constant role model for my sister. I never knew he felt like this before...

I realize I am standing in the middle of the stairs like a statue, frozen in shock. Kyle and Lia must have pushed past me at some point because they are gone. Suddenly I feel someone hugging me. It is Aunt Dawn. She is comforting and smells like fresh baked apple pie. I just stand there, stiff as stone while she hugs me.

I didn't even realize I was crying until she looked at me and

wiped some tears away. I suddenly reached out and hugged her back. I was so upset. Kyle hated me. I couldn't believe it. I just hugged Aunt Dawn. I realized she was talking.

"It's going to be alright. He didn't mean it. He was just upset. It's OK. It'll be alright. Calm down sweetie. He'll calm down soon too. It's Ok." She whispered in my hair.

"Thank you Aunt Dawn," I said. I had stopped crying but I was still sniffling.

"You're welcome child," She said "Now let's go clean up your face and wipe up mine alright?" I realized she had been crying too. Black mascara was streaking down her face and making her look like a raccoon. I laughed. We headed upstairs and cleaned our faces. When we came back downstairs, mom and Kyle were already there. Kyle looked at me and gestured that we should go outside.

We headed for the patio. He looked at me and I saw a trace of the anger in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I got upset. But mom told me when I first learned about magic that I could be the one to test the magic. I hoped for water. But I realize that fire suits me better. It matches my temper and my hair," He smiled, "Will you forgive me?" I looked at him and saw the look in his eyes. It was one of a person who realized how wrong they were and wanted to make it better. I instantly found the space in my heart to forgive him.

"I forgive you. I didn't realize how much it meant to you." I said. He smiled and we headed inside. As soon as we got there, everyone visibly relaxed.

"How about some apple pie?" Aunt Dawn asked, "With some vanilla ice cream?" We all nodded our agreement. She went into the kitchen and grabbed the apple pie, ice cream and the scooper.

We all dug in. When we had finished, Lia cleared her throat.

"How about a demonstration of our newfound base magic? Kyle, will you light this candelabrum in the middle of the table?" Kyle nodded and focused on the candelabrum and suddenly, all of the wicks lit up at once.

Kyle smiled and everyone applauded. Kyle had his confidence back. He wasn't that bad, once he stopped creating trouble. He was kind in his own way, in his big brother way; an irritating, maddening brotherly way. But in that way, he was the best brother anyone could wish for. I smiled and headed for my new bed.

The next morning, it was Aunt Dawn who woke me up. She told me that breakfast was ready and that my clothes were in the dresser to the right. I looked inside and found that the shirts were on the top and the pants were on the bottom. I got dressed into a purple T-shirt and some jeans. I was ready. I put my hair in a ponytail and headed downstairs. We had waffles and strawberries and blueberries. I put a smiling face on my waffle.

Kyle and John wanted to show me their room. I went up with them to see what they had gotten. Their room turned out to be black and navy blue with bunk beds. Their dressers were dark green and they had a walk in closet and a window seat too. We sat down at the table in the middle of their room.

I noticed they had a black beanbag in one corner. I made a mental note to ask Aunt Dawn for one of those. A reading lamp would be next to it. Kyle and John wanted to see my room too. They looked around and John noticed something I hadn't.

"You have a map of the grounds too," he observed. I hadn't realized we both had one.

"Yeah, I guess I do." I said. I realized we were next door to each other. "Hey, do you think we can talk through the walls?" I wonder. Kyle headed to his room to try it out. I called out, "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah!" came the reply. I walked to his room.

"Hey, you know what I just noticed?" I asked.

"What?" John asked.

"We have posters In the exact same spot. Look, if I go into my room," I walked into my room, "And I tap my poster here, it's coming from behind one of your posters right?" I asked.

"Yeah," came the reply. "Do you think we should cut a hole in the wall here?" he asked.

"I don't know. Lift up your poster will you?" I asked. I heard him doing it. I had already done that. I tapped the wall. Kyle tapped back. I realized I could see a crack in the wall. "I am going to investigate something. Don't do anything until I say," I told them. I started tapping the wall, and I could see a cylinder shape emerge. I kept on tapping until Kyle caught on and grabbed it.

He had just lifted it out of the wall when we heard a knock. I could see him shove it underneath the bed, so I pulled his poster back in place. I put my poster back in place as well. I made sure I could remember which poster it was (A purple water dragon) and I opened my door. I saw Aunt Dawn in the hall.

"Aunt Dawn! Can I have a beanbag with a reading light in one corner of my room, a purple beanbag?" I pleaded.

"Of course you can have one. Here you go," she snapped her fingers and turned back to Kyle's door. I rushed into my room and saw a light lavender beanbag with a blue light next to it. I smiled. It matched perfectly. I listened through the walls into Kyle's room.

"Now... should do...boy stuff... maybe.... football.... Please? OK....buy you...be....sister." I could only catch part of what Aunt Dawn said. I sighed. So much for secret spying, I couldn't even hear half of their conversation! I heard Aunt Dawn leave. Kyle lifted his poster and I lifted mine.

"What was that all about?" I asked him

"Just nonsense is all. Do you want to try to make some fire?" he asked.

"What about John?" I replied.

"He doesn't know what his magic is yet. He is going to try with us." He answered.

"Should we do it in your room or my room?" I pondered.

"My room," he decided. I walked to his room and sat down at the table with him and John. He concentrated and succeeded in making a small ball of fire in his hands. He tried to pass it to me, but It fizzed out. I tried to make a ball. I concentrated and made a ball a little bit bigger than Kyle's. I tried to keep it together when passing it, but it too fizzed out.

John tried with all his might, but he couldn't get a fireball started. He concentrated on a candle, couldn't get it to light. I felt bad for him. If I was in his position, with my two friends that had magic and I didn't, I'd be screaming to the world that it wasn't fair. That's just how I am. But he did nothing. He just shrugged and let it go. I admired him for it.

I hoped he stuck around. He had a way of calming me. I could tell Kyle felt it too. I briefly wondered what his base magic was, but I pushed the thought away. Why worry when you could have fun? I tried again to take the fireball from Kyle's hands, and this time, it worked. I smiled. It is definitely better to enjoy playing while it lasts.