Elizabeth
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 172
 |
 Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:05 am Post subject: It's Only Cheating If You Get Caught - Story |
  |
|
This was the day, Carrie had decided. The day she made this world hers, the day she made it the way she wanted it to be.
Well, the day she made her house hers, at any rate, at least until her parents returned. She and her big sister Lydia had already seen them off, waving from the door as her mother drove off, while inside the car they could see their father still complaining that she wouldn't allow him to enchant the car to drive itself, so that they could... begin celebrating their anniversary early, or something like that. Carrie couldn't remember exactly, because her mother had just started giggling and told her husband to shush.
"You be good girls," their father had warned them. Lydia wasn't listening, as usual. Carrie was pretty sure Lydia hadn't listened to their parents since she'd turned sixteen last year. "And you," he eyed Carrie specifically, and she drew back a little, already knowing what he was going to tell her. He always did, just because of one little bitty incident last month, where she'd turned the dining room table into a rather flat looking lion.
"Be careful," she spoke up timidly, giggling at the surprised look in her father's eyes. He nodded, opening and closing his mouth as if looking for something new to say.
"You're one to talk about that, Timotheus," Carrie's mother spoke up wryly as she bustled back in from stuffing the last of her suitcases into the trunk of the car. Her husband's expression of befuddlement deepened, leaving him murmuring under his breath for a few minutes.
Carrie was fairly certain her somewhat tenuous grasp on her magic came from her father, though the incident her mother had been speaking of came more from her own rotten luck than magical mayhem - she just happened to be running upstairs to fetch a clean dishtowel for her mother at the same time as her father's suitcases had been flying down the stairs to rest in front of the door. Well, not the same time, exactly, since she had nearly been at the top of the stair case before she found herself suddenly falling back down.
"Stop daydreaming, short stuff," Lydia interrupted Carrie's thoughts, rather rudely shoving a feather duster in her face. "Go dust the living room."
"Do it yourself," Carrie told her firmly, hoping beyond hope that might happen to be good enough to make Lydia see that she was through being bossed around. This would be so much easier if her father hadn't enchanted her wand not to work on Lydia... It was only fair, he'd said, since she, like their mother, didn't have any magical ability. Of course, he hadn't had any big sisters growing up, or he would have understood Carrie's protests.
"Yeah, I'll do that," Lydia rolled her eyes. "Come on, get going. Maybe I'll let you have some ice cream if you don't take too long."
Carrie sighed, began to reach for the duster, but she forced herself to stop, to push it away. It looked like she would have to resort to plan B. "I'll race you," she said quietly, almost hoping Lydia wouldn't hear her.
Carrie's stomach fell as Lydia's eyes lit up. "Race me, did you say?"
Carrie nodded. She knew her sister wouldn't be able to turn down something like that; she was competitive to a fault, and for good reason, since Carrie had yet to beat her at anything. Carrie shuddered to remember some of the things Lydia had made her do over the years. Having to do chores for both of them for a week had been the most tame, and, Carrie felt, quite uninspired. Her least favorite had been the time Lydia had made her eat all of their father's newt eyes, but Lydia had gotten into more trouble than her, after she'd gotten sick.
"What will I be winning?" Lydia asked, sounding scarily predatory.
"Anything." Carrie swallowed. "The winner can make the loser do anything she wants. Until mom and dad get back."
"Well, well," Lydia rubbed her hands together. "What are we waiting for?"
"Me to do this," Carrie said, pulling her wand out of her pocket and aiming it at the feather duster, which shook for a moment, then appeared to split into two, until Carrie gave a closer look at the second, which suddenly seemed to be more of a chicken than a duster. "Shoot!" She pointed the wand at it again as it started to run, clucking, from the room. Luckily, the chicken turned back to a feather duster and fell to the floor with a soft clunk.
"You use that one," Lydia told Carrie, picking up the former chicken delicately and tossing it at her sister, who very nearly caught it. "I take it we're supposed to do a good job with this, hmm? Not just whoever finishes the quickest." Carrie nodded, and Lydia did the same for a second, and then she had turned and was running down the stairs.
"We're not starting yet!" Carrie called after her angrily, though she made sure to get to the living room as quickly as possible.
They divided up the living room into halves, and, after some prodding by Lydia (Carrie couldn't help but roll her eyes at how excited she was getting over something so... stupid...), Carrie counted down from 3, and they were off in a cloud of dust, cleaning away.
Carrie could tell almost straight off she had made a mistake. Perhaps she should have come up with a better plan than "Challenge her with anything she makes you do first". She should have been a little suspicious when Lydia had offered to dust the half of the living room that contained the shelf full of little ceramic statues their mother loved so much. She definitely should have realized that Lydia taking that half left her dusting the half with the fireplace, the mantle of which she couldn't reach without standing on a chair.
Carrie gave it a valiant try anyway, but she knew there was no way she could win. As Lydia reached the opposite side of the living room than she had started in, Carrie's hand started to drift down to her pocket, where her wand was resting. They hadn't said anything about her not using magic... Of course, that was usually considered an unspoken rule, but still... She had promised to do anything Lydia asked of her if she lost. There was no way she was going to let that happen without a fight.
Carrie pulled out her wand, concentrating very hard on what she wanted, squeezing her eyes closed tightly as she gave the wand a little flick. She could have sworn she heard wind, and she opened her eyes to find herself in the middle of a cloud of dust. She started to cough loudly, waving her wand again to make the dust go away, and most of it floated away into the fireplace, and some of that even flew up the chimney like she had wanted.
But it was too late. "I'm do~one," Lydia called playfully from the other side of the room.
"Damn it!" Carrie stomped her foot, tears started to gather in her eyes as she gritted her teeth, and turned to face her sister. "What do you want?" she asked bluntly.
Lydia smiled cruelly. "Give me your wand."
"What?" Carrie stepped backwards quickly. "No!" She clutched the wand to her chest possessively. "What are you gonna do with it anyway? It's not like you can use it." Carrie wasn't completely sure of this, which was one reason she was so nervous. She had heard that even those without the ability to use magic could sometimes draw upon the power of some of the spells previously cast with a wand - that was one of the reasons witches were warned always to keep track of their wands. And the wand was only enchanted not to work on Lydia... If she could somehow figure out how to use it, she could do whatever she wanted to Carrie...
No, it just wasn't fair. It was too much.
"Oh, just give it here, you big baby," Lydia demanded, reaching out and grabbing it. Carrie kept a hold on it, knowing full well Lydia would be able to wrest it away from her easily, but it was all she could do. "You'd think you would be used to losing to me by now."
Carrie's brows furrowed, and her grip tightened, for a moment until Lydia gave a particularly hard yank, and the "business" end of the wand came free from her left hand. Lydia grabbed that end, and Carrie renewed her hold on the other end, with both hands this time. They tugged on it for a minute or two before finally, it had too much, and Carrie saw a brilliant flash of light as it burst into two right before she felt herself being flung backwards against the living room wall.
The air escaped her lungs quickly and painfully for the second time that day. Her arms wrapped around her stomach as she winced, hunching over forwards for a few moments as she tried to compose herself again. When she looked back up, she saw Lydia sitting, dazed, on the other side of the room. She had a rather blank expression on her face that took Carrie a minute or two to recall from school, where she'd seen a video about someone who'd had their memory erased, although in the video, it had been on purpose.
"Lydia?" she asked tentatively, praying her memory hadn't been erased -too- far. Her wand wasn't that powerful, so she assumed it wouldn't do too much, but you never could tell with these kinds of things.
"Carrie?" Lydia's eyes opened and she struggled to her feet. "What happened?"
Carrie mentally crossed her fingers, put on her best innocent face. "You lost the contest, sis. And you got pissed at me, and accused me of cheating, and... And you broke my wand." Carrie paused to glare accusingly at Lydia, who was blinking slowly, and now looking a bit ashamed of herself. "I told you not to, but you were mad, and you shoved me away..."
"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie," Lydia apologized, giving Carrie a big hug. "I don't know what came over me..."
Carrie couldn't help but smile as they hugged. If she had worked quickly enough, Lydia should remember things the way Carrie told them to her. Perfect.
Lydia let go of her, sheepishly handed her the half of the wand she was still clutching. "Congratulations, Carrie. Really. I knew you would beat me one day." She appeared to be sincere, but she still gave a sad little smile before she asked, "So, have you decided what you want me to do yet?"
Carrie hadn't. Her plan hadn't involved anything quite so specific. She could always ask for something simple, like "Let me do anything I want for the whole weekend," but that just didn't seem good enough. She would be living with Lydia for longer than just this week - she had to come up with some way to show Lydia what it was like to be treated like Lydia treated her most of the time.
Lydia's comment from earlier came back to her, seemingly from nowhere. Big baby, huh? That's certainly what she felt like half the time.
Carrie began to smile. Could she get away with it?
Sure, she could. After all, Lydia not only though she had lost the bet, but broken Carrie's most prized possession. There was no way she was going to risk making Carrie more angry with her... Carrie knew a lot of things their parents would find most interesting, if she cared to let them slip.
Carrie's eyes twinkled as she glanced up at Lydia. "We agreed the winner could make the loser do -anything-, right?"
|
|
