The wonderful life of Rema

                     The wonderful life of Rema


    I am a girl, a wolf, a bird, a living speck of dust, a fly, I can be literally anything that I want to be, but right now I am a bored student stuck in the middle of math class. Thank goddess it is Friday. I wish I was a bird so I could fly out of the window all the way back home, but I am tired, and everybody knows that you can’t do magic when you are tired. We didn’t know that until my sister, Zoe, tried to stop time while she was in a timed test, she ended up only stopping herself, causing an uproar among Magices. My grandfather had to use his magic to erase many ordinary humans’ minds. 

“Oh goodness, Rema, can’t you focus in math just for once?!”  Different magices get their magic at varied times in their life, so my mother just recently found hers on Sunday; mind reading is something you never want your mom to be able to do. Since Sunday, she has been using her powers excessively, especially in class. Part of her power is that she can speak to me in my head, and I can think my answer back. 

“I am sorry, but this is pretty boring…” I answer. 

“I understand, but this class is important, and you only have a B,” she says. It is true, but that is because the teacher is out to get me,not because I can’t do math, which I can. My mom is always on me about my grades. Talk about annoying. I know they’re important and all, but when your mom grounds you for three weeks every time you get something under a B, it gets old. 

“Hey, you know I can still read  your mind. Also, it is totally reasonable to want you to get good grades!” 

“To a certain extent!” I argue. 

    “What did you say!” Shoot, she read that. Sometimes I wish I could control what she can and can’t see. 

    “Rema! Are you listening?”Ms. K asks me, none too nicely either.

    “Huh? Oh, yes ma’am,” I answer.  She gives me the stink eye for a minute, and then turns back to the board. 

“Alright Rema, since you have been listening, oh so intently,  will you please repeat back to me what I have been teaching you?” she asks me, still facing the board. Oh, no.

“Mom, have you been listening?” I ask. 

“Yes, but you have to answer this on your own.”

 Shoot. I search the board for a hint. 

“You are the one who has been distracting me! It is only fair if you help me out just a little bit, like right now!” I argue still trying to see around Ms. K’s small figure to the white board.

“Fine, you have been learning about how to find the volume of blank. That is all I will tell you,” she answers. Still, that’s better than nothing.

“You have been teaching us how to find the volume of a…. What is it?” I say, racking  my brain trying to remember.

“Since Rema was so obviously not listening, Charlotte, will you tell me what we have been learning?” Charlotte, being the snottiest, most stuck up girl in probably the whole entire world, I genuinely think it is impressive that she is also the teacher’s pet and a know it all. 

“You have been teaching us the formula for finding the volume of a triangular prism, which is ½ multiplied by a multiplied by c multiplied by h,” she answers, of course, perfectly. 

“Wonderful, Charlotte,” Ms. K says.  Turning away from the board, she continues her lesson on finding the volume to triangular prisms.

Later that day, after the final bell rings, I notice Charlotte staring at a dog named Max as if she was in a trance. The facial expression looked familiar, but I couldn’t place exactly where I had seen it before. I ponder the subject on the short journey home, but nothing came to mind. I drop off my school bags and, looking at my watch, I realize I have to leave for the animal meeting. Almost every species shows up, of course, to the exception of humans, who have yet to come. The whereabouts of each AM (animal meeting) varies to accommodate different species needs. This time it is off the coast of Isabela Island; this time for the flamingos. To get where I need to go, I always turn into a golden eagle for my flight to the meeting, and then turn into a different animal if I want. This time I will stay a golden eagle.

Focusing all of my attention on a golden eagle, I see in my mind, I feel myself falling, as if in slow motion. I wake up on the ground. I stand up, a little wobbly. I’m not used to this form. I flap my massive wings, and I am off, airborn. It takes me a little over 12 hours to get to the Island, and when I finally get there most of the animals have already arrived. I quickly find the convocation of golden eagles, sitting unhappily on a weak, partially dead pine tree. I fly over and land clumsily on the tree, hoping that it will hold my weight. A pandemonium of parrots fly in,complaining about how cold it is. A smack of jellyfish come in closer to the shore, while a bale of sea turtles look hungrily at them. A number one rule in the AM is that despite your mighty cravings, you can’t eat any other species that arrives to the meeting. Eventually order is called, the pledge to respect the ten rules is rehearsed, and the meeting starts. 

“I’m not complaining or anything, but you know, Rema, I would kind of like it if you would bring some human friends along with you one of these times,” says Hassan, a tiger. 

“We have talked about this, Hassan. We don’t force animals into coming to the AM. You, out of all animals, should know that. Humans choose not to come and we will not pressure their decision. Plus, think about what happened last time they came. The bad ones didn’t respect the rules and killed Sila. You know that none of us would like to relive that day again. Please, keep this conversation on reasonable topics,” says Thea, a nurturing and loving sea turtle. 

“I have something to ask Max,” I say, and then all attention is on me. Everybody here knows that my natural form is human, and so they are unnecessarily interested in me. 

“Yes?”answers Max, with a hint of surprise in his voice. 

“Today, after school Charlotte seemed to be performing magic on you, Max. What happened?” I had been thinking about it a lot and I had placed where I had seen the look on her face. It is the same expression Mom has when she is reading minds, or when Zoe is stopping time, or when Grandad is wiping minds, or when Dad is in the process of turning himself invisible. So the only possibility left is that Charlotte is a Magice as well. 

“Oh, that. Yes, sweet girl.” 

I scoffed.

“Sweet girl, huh?” I say holding back a laugh. Max looks at me with a death stare that wipes the smile off my face. 

“Yes, in fact she is probably sweeter than you. Anyway, as I was saying, we were having quite a nice conversation. She had a bad day, and she really needed to talk to somebody. That animal being me, I took my job with dignity and serenity,”  Max says proudly. 

“You mean that you talked to another species out of an AM?!” Ada, a parrot, screeches.

“I mean I guess so. I didn’t think of it that way,” answers Max, confused. 

“Does this mean that there might be an unknown Magice?” asks Thea, already knowing the answer. Magices have to go through a training when they first get their power to be able to control it, or else it can be extremely dangerous.

“Yes, but we need to know for sure that she’s a Magice before putting her through the training, or Rema’s grandpa will have to wipe her mind, which we don’t want to happen.” Answers Gracie, a Kangaroo who helps in the animal department of Magice training.

“I will try my best, but we will need to come up with a plan,” I say. And so we do. 

When I finally get home, late Sunday morning, I go to my room and sleep. Nervous for the next day’s work.

The next morning I wake to the sound of my mother shrieking in the hallway. 

“I have told you and told you again Rema, to transform back into a human before entering the house, and look what happens when you disobey me!” she yells. I make my way to the door and reach out to open it, and only then is when I realize that I am still in bird form. 

“I don’t care what time you got home yesterday morning, or how much you slept at the animal meeting, but there are no excuses for this!” She says in my head. 

“I know, I am so sorry! I will clean up the mess, I promise.” I think back. Alright, now to get out of bird form, I go through the familiar sensation of changing forms and I walk into the hallway. It is a disaster. Objects everywhere, scratches from my eagle claws on the wall, eagle waste everywhere. A complete and utter mess. 

“You have some explaining to do, and even then you are grounded for three weeks, and yes you will miss the animal meeting.” No, no, no, no. This can not be happening to me. 

“Mom, I understand why you are mad, and this will be cleaned up by the time I go to school, but there is an unknown Magice that I have to talk with the AM administration about. Please help me out here. Next time it will be like I never changed species.”

“There is an unknown Magice!? Why didn’t you tell me? Who?” She asked excitedly.

“Charlotte. She talked to Max Friday after school,” I answer, hoping this exhilarating news will make up for the mess I made. 

“Who is Max, and fine, I will let you off the hook, but just this once,” she answers. Yes!

“Thank you so much, you are the best, and Max is a dog. I think that she has the power to converse with animals.” 

“Oh my goodness this is so exciting! We can talk more about it after school, but for now pick this mess up, and go to school!”

School goes by impressively slow today. In English, my favorite class, I watch clock slowly tick. In math I think about what is going to happen after school. In art, my artwork failed miserably, but for once I wasn’t upset. In gym, we did relay races, but I kept spacing out and missing my turn. Then, finally, the day is over and now I get to carry through with the plan. Outside, I find a private place where I turn into a dog resembling Max, then wait for Charlotte to leave the school. I know her whole after school schedule. Mondays, she walks home, Tuesdays she goes to piano, Wednesdays she walks home, Thursdays she goes to piano, and Friday she walks. Only on Mondays she walks with Max, who I am currently disguised as. Finally I see Charlotte come out of the double doors. I trot over to her, and she greets me kindly.

“Hey buddy, thanks for coming!” She says, it’s weird I understand her, I hear her, but nobody else seems to hear her. 

“Of course, do you think I would just leave you?!” I say, imitating Max’s personality.

“Well, a little. I was worried. I don’t like walking home alone. Rema isn’t my friend persay, but it would be nice to walk with her, you know? Just for some company. Now I have you, though,” she says. I didn’t know that she would even come close to wanting my company. 

“You should have walked with her. She would have like it.” I lie, practically spitting the words. It is weird to talk about yourself in third person. 

“Yeah, maybe I will walk with her sometime,” she says. Darn it.

 “Yeah, maybe. Hey, have you told anybody about this thing?” I ask, hoping she was smart enough to know what I was talking about.

“Told anybody about what?” she asks. Apparently not.

“The whole you can talk to animals thing.” 

“Oh, no. I don’t even know what is going on. I don’t suppose anybody else does… That is okay, though, I am okay with it, plus not only can I talk to animals, but if I told you to go run away and start barking like crazy, you would have to.” she says. Oh, no. She has no training, and a whole lot of power-two things that should never mix.

“What do you mean?” I ask, hoping that what I think she means is totally wrong.

“Can I demonstrate?”  she asks. I give my consent, a little nervous. She stands up tall, straightens her back and says, “I order you little dog, to go get a newspaper, get me a puppy, and tell me who you truly are since you surely aren’t Max. In that order, please, I will be waiting here. Go on, do it.” It was truly unlike anything I had ever felt. Even though I really didn’t want to do anything she told me, at the same time I felt an incredible desire to do exactly what she wanted. So I did. First, I went to a convenience store, fetched a newspaper, and brought it back to her, now on to getting her a puppy. I asked a pretty, nice dog where I could get a free, stray puppy. She told me that there was a litter left out on the shady side of town. I made my way over there and found three whole, very cute and small puppies in a box. I couldn’t just leave them there, so I took the whole litter box and all back to Charlotte. The last thing I needed to do was tell her who I really was. Something I promised not to do at the AM. 

“Alright, thank you. Now on to my last request.” Under her spell I had no chance to refuse her demand.

“I am Rema,”  I say and turn myself human. She gave a little gasp, and then recomposed herself “I knew it! I knew it!” She screeched, then she calmed down. “What is going on with me?” she asks. 

“You are a Magice. You need to come with me after school Friday. We will talk about training,-”

“Training?” she asks, a worried expression displayed on her face.

“You need to be able to control your power, and your want for more. Meet me after school Friday, and tell your parents that you will be back Sunday morning. Okay?” I ask.

“Okay.” She says a little shakily. “Well, see you.”

“Yeah, see you,” I tell her. Success, and not success. I wasn’t actually supposed to tell her that I was Rema and not Max. 

Friday would not come soon enough. It was okay though; I had Chester, one of the puppies. Apparently Charlotte’s mom wasn’t a dog person so she would only let Charlotte take two instead of three. So I got the third. 

Finally, Friday came and as promised, Charlotte met me at the cherry trees as soon as the final bell sounded. 

“So, where is this ‘animal meeting’ we are going to?” Charlotte asks me as we make our way to my house. 

“Columbia, for the parrots.” I answer nonchalantly.

“Columbia! That is like  2,763 miles away!” She says, alarmed.

“Yeah it will take like 13.815 hours to get there.” I say smiling. 

“Are we taking a plane?” she asks, knowing the answer. 

“No. I will be flying, you will be swimming.” I tell her. Are you scared of the ocean?” I ask.

“No.” She says frowning.

“Then you will be riding a whale.” Her face turned to a look of pure horror. 

“No.” She breathes, unbelieving. I turn into a cheetah and tell her to get on my back. 

“I will bring you to the ocean, you will get on the blue whale. You will get to know her. She is extremely nice. Her name is Jennifer, quite the whale. You will love her. She likes to talk, and she will love you.” By then we had arrived at the ocean where there was a small boat that we rode to the middle of the ocean where I told Charlotte to call Jennifer. She did and Jennifer came as called.

“Hello. I am Jennifer I am taking Charlotte to the AM?” Jennifer asks.

“Yes you are. Thank you again, Jennifer for taking her, it is a big help,” I say, smiling. “Alright, bye Charlotte.” I say waving. She manages a small squeak before she slips into the water onto Jennifer’s back. I turn into a golden eagle and watch Jennifer and Charlotte swim away.

Life isn’t so bad after all. I had helped a new Magice, and I guess I had made a new friend. Charlotte is nice once you get to know her. Plus, maybe she can help me with my math. I spread my wings and take flight, feeling the wind rush through my feathers.

 

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