Mellissa’s head popped out from behind the Christmas tree. “You know what? I will take you to the library next week, and you can look up the origins of all our Christmas traditions if you want. I know I don’t quite have the answers you want. I don’t question things as much as you do.”
“I would like that.” She was more insightful than he gave her credit for. He had been reluctant to share anything about himself when they’d met. He hadn’t deemed it as necessary. Yet somehow, it was almost like she knew what he was thinking.
The bright lights of a car shone through the front window. Mellissa looked outside. “My dad’s back early.”
“I guess that’s my cue to go.” Annoyingly, she had succeeded in getting out of more magic practice. Why was it so hard to keep her on track?
“Well, actually, I may have already let my dad know I was going to have a friend over.”
“You did what?” he asked. “I thought you wanted to keep magic away from your dad.”
“I’m not going to tell him you’re a changeling,” she said, looking at him like he was an idiot. “You are just my friend who needs somewhere to stay.”
“I do not. I have a place to live. It may not be up to your standards, but it is just fine.”
“Living with that much damp is a health risk. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been raining all day, and there are holes in the roof of that place. Also, let’s not forget the rats. You should be happy I am being so nice, especially considering I know how annoying you are.”
“What is your problem with Bill?” Greg asked.
“Stop talking about that rat like it’s a person!”
“Mellissa,” came Mr. Hail’s voice, “why are you shouting?”
Mellissa leapt across the room to stand in the doorway. She blocked her father’s path into the living room. She gave him a massive grin. “Nothing is wrong, Dad. You’re home early.”
“There wasn’t much to do today, so I left early,” he replied. “Which twin is over today?”
“Neither.” She stepped back, letting her dad walk in the room. His face dropped as he saw Greg. “This is Greg—you know, the friend I told you about. Because Matt is not my only friend, you know.”
Mr. Hail rubbed his chin. “When you said you were having a friend stay, I thought you meant Victoria.”
“Hey, I never said that,” Mellissa said. “And you can’t change your mind now. He is practically a homeless person.”
“What do you mean homeless?” Mr. Hail asked, shocked. “Where are your parents?”
“I am not homeless. I have a place to live,” Greg replied. “It was nice to meet you, Mr. Hail. I don’t want to be a bother to anyone, so I will just go.”
“Greg, do not move,” Mellissa demanded, putting her arm up in front of him. He froze on the spot. And she called him bossy. She turned to her father. “Dad, can we talk in the hall for a moment?”
Mr. Hail followed his daughter out of the room. Greg couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he was sure he was the topic of discussion. He didn’t understand why she was being so persistent about this. He thought she would be happy to be rid of him, as she was always complaining how annoying he was. Although, the rats had really freaked her out. They weren’t the sort of thing that bothered him. However, she did have a point about the roof and damp. It would be nice to stay somewhere warm and dry again. That flat didn’t even have heat. How had his father managed to get him somewhere so horrible to live? Maybe he had done it on purpose. This was his punishment for not agreeing with his plan for Mellissa.
Mellissa and Mr. Hail walked back in the room. Mr. Hail walked over to him and clasped his shoulder. “Mellissa has explained everything. You can stay in the guest room until you find somewhere new. How could your father leave the country and let you live like that?”
Mellissa waved her hands at him from behind her dad and mouthed, “Just go with it!” What had she told him exactly? “You really don’t have to,” Greg replied. “I wouldn’t want to be in your way. Bill and I have come to an agreement on our living arrangements.”
“Who is Bill?” Mr. Hail asked.
“Bill is one of the rats,” Mellissa said. “I told you, he thinks it’s normal to have a family of rats as roommates.”
Mr. Hail patted Greg’s shoulder. “I insist. I couldn’t in good conscience let you go back there.”
“Thank you, Mr. Hail.”
“Well, I am going to put on some dinner. Mellissa can show you to the guest room and explain the rules we agreed on.” Mr. Hail gave Greg a sympathetic smile and left the room. This was the first time he had met him properly. Her father had no reason to show him any sort of concern, but he had. Greg wasn’t used to people doing things simply out of the kindness of their heart.
“Your dad is really nice, but what exactly did you tell him?” Greg asked.
Mellissa shrugged. “I told him everything that’s wrong with your place. He, unlike you, understands that rats are not good flatmates, and no heating can lead to health issues. Come on, I will show you the guest room.”
Greg followed her up the stairs. “Since when does my health concern you?”
“Since I met you. I don’t want to catch a nasty disease from you. You could be dying from the plague, and you’d still insist on being up bright and early for my training.”
“I am not that bad.”
Mellissa stopped at the door farthest from the stairs. “Well, this will be your room for now. I would give you a tour of the house, but you know where everything is, as you’ve already secretly been living here. The main rules you need to know are that we stay out of each other’s room after hours and you are to help with stuff around the house.” She gasped, and her hand shot to her mouth. “Oh, no. We need to come up with a story for how we met.”
“How about you just tell your dad the truth about magic?”
“Let me think about that.” Mellissa put her finger over her mouth and then pointed at him. “No.”
“Fine. We met at the library.”
Mellissa eyes sparkled. “That’s a great idea. We can go get your stuff later, if you want.”
“It’s fine. I should be able to summon it from here.”
“Cool, can you show me how you do it?” He nodded. She grabbed his arm. “Oh crap, I should tell my dad you’re a vegetarian.”
She ran downstairs. He would never understand her train of thought. Greg went into the guest room and looked around. This was probably the only room he hadn’t been in. It had a simple layout. There was a double bed against the back wall, with a bedside cabinet on both sides. The butterfly bedding and curtains were obviously chosen by Mellissa. A wardrobe stood next to the window, which looked out onto the back garden. He had to admit, it was a lot nicer here. There was only so much magic could do to make his other place decent. The floor was covered by a soft carpet rather than the rubbery one back at that flat. To top it off, there was heating.
Mellissa
The smell of my dad cooking breakfast drifted up the stairs. I opened my curtains. It was nice to see it wasn’t raining again. Although, the dark clouds in the sky suggested the dry spell wouldn’t last. Hopefully, it would last long enough for me to go shopping with my dad. He had arranged a late start at work, and we would get everything we needed for the next day. We did this every year on Christmas Eve. It was just the two of us, so our Christmas dinner didn’t need much planning. I skipped downstairs to the kitchen.
“Morning, sweetie,” my dad said, filling a plate with food. It was no surprise that Greg was already up and sat at the table eating. I really didn’t know how he functioned getting up so early every day.
“Morning, Mellissa. I understand that today is the eve of Christmas. Are there any traditions that go with this day?” Greg asked.
“Well, this morning, my dad and I are going shopping, but then in the afternoon, I will open your mind to all things Christmas. We will make cookies and cakes, go carol-singing and see the singing elves. Mat
t and I usually go see whatever Christmas film they have out. Oh, and decorating gingerbread houses is a must.”
My dad joined us at the table with a plate of food for himself and one for me. “I am sure he will be all Christmas-ed out once you and Matt are done with him.”
“Matt will be around today?” Greg asked. “We haven’t seen him in a couple of days.”
I looked down at my plate. I hadn’t seen Matt since we had got back from the magic world. At least Victoria had rung to check on me. She had said Matt had had the flu since we returned and was locked away in his room ignoring everyone. But that didn’t explain why he hadn’t responded to any of my texts. I had texted him last night to remind him about today, and again, he hadn’t replied. I just hoped he was feeling better and would turn up.
“Um, yeah. He should be,” I said. “We do this stuff every year.”
“Are you sure you will be all right here on your own while we go out?” Dad asked Greg.
“He will be fine,” I said. “He will probably spend the time reading, as learning new things is such fun.”
“You say that like it is a bad thing.” Greg got up from the table. “Thanks for the food, Mr. Hail. You are a wonderful cook. I see where Mellissa gets her cooking ability from.” Greg left the room.
My dad glared at me from across the table. I wasn’t sure what I had done wrong. “When exactly did you cook for that boy?” he asked, pointing in the direction Greg had just gone.
I stuffed a load of food in my mouth to give me time to think. This was meant to be the first time Greg had been here. He shouldn’t have eaten anything I’d cooked before.
“At a cooking class.” It was the first thing that popped into my head. “You remember, right? The one I went to with Matt. He thought it might be a good way to pick up girls who were able to cook. It just so happened Greg was also part of that class. Yeah, that’s what happened.” I smiled awkwardly at my dad. I don’t think he believed me. I didn’t believe me. I should have just said Greg had been around before while he was working. He worked late often enough. Lying to my dad was something I didn’t do often, so I was far from good at it.
I finished my food and ran away. I barged into the guest room. Greg was sat on the bed but jumped up as I stormed in the room. “You almost got me caught in a lie,” I said, jabbing my finger in his face.
Greg pushed my hand to the side. “What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t been here before, remember? I haven’t been secretly feeding you for weeks, and you don’t know whether I can cook or not.”
“Sorry about that. I didn’t think.” He sat back down. “However, you do realise I’m not the one forcing you to lie to your dad. It was your choice not to tell him about magic.”
He was right. The decision not to tell my dad the truth had nothing to do with Greg. It had been my choice. I was too scared to tell him the truth. I had no idea how he would react or if he would believe me.
“It’s not the easiest subject to bring up. What am I meant to say? Hey, Dad, did you know mum’s side of the family were elves, and oh, my friend here can turn into a rabbit. He’d think I’d lost my mind.”
“I will happily help you explain everything to him, if you want. I can actually demonstrate my ability to turn into a rabbit or any other animal, as there are lots of animals I can change into.”
It was a nice offer, but I wasn’t ready to have the “magic is real” conversation with my dad. “I will get back to you when I’m ready to talk to my dad, and I know you don’t only transform into a rabbit.” I walked off to get ready to go out.
I headed into the house and put all the shopping away. As expected, Greg was in the living room reading. I looked at the clock. It was already past one. Matt should have already been here. He was probably just running late. It wouldn’t hurt to start without him. I grabbed Greg’s book out of his hands.
“Hey, what are you doing?” he asked.
I pointed to the door. “To the kitchen. These cookies aren’t going to make themselves.”
“I thought you were doing all that stuff with Matt. I was going to observe, so I could learn about your customs.”
“Well, he’s not here yet, so I’ll have to make do with you as my assistant. If we don’t start now, we won’t fit everything in.” I pulled at Greg’s arm. I almost fell backward when he got up.
“Fine, but you do realise I don’t bake.”
“Like never?” I asked. He shook his head. “Well, don’t worry. I’ll be doing all the hard stuff.”
I ran to the kitchen and pulled out all the ingredients needed. Greg lagged behind me and leant on the counter when he finally made it to the kitchen. This was exactly what I’d meant about him not moving with excitement. I picked up a handful of flour and flicked it at him.
“Hey!” he shouted. “What was that for?”
“I only want happy faces in my kitchen,” I said. “At least pretend to be excited.”
“You know what? You’re crazy.”
“Old news much?” I handed him a mixing bowl, and I got out another one for myself. I measured out ingredients while telling Greg what to do. I’d made this recipe so many times before, I knew it off the top of my head.
The first batch of cookies cooled on the side, and I put the second lot in the oven. That was when it dawned on me that Matt still hadn’t shown up. He was more than a little late now. I went and checked my phone to see if he had messaged me. Nothing.
“Is something wrong?” Greg asked.
“It’s just, Matt is really late. I’m just going to ring him to check he’s all right.” I tapped on Matt’s name. It went straight to voice mail. I tried again only to have the same thing happen. This wasn’t like Matt. He was permanently attached to his phone. If he didn’t answer a call, he would usually call back within seconds. What if something bad had happened to him?
“I’ll be right back.” I disappeared in a burst of bright light. I looked up at the house I’d materialised in front of and knocked on the door. Victoria answered.
“Mellissa, what are you doing here?” she asked.
“Is Matt here?” I asked.
She tilted her head sideways and lifted her top lip. “He left ages ago. I assumed to meet you.”
“Well we never actually made any plans but he usually is round by midday to start making cookies. You don’t think something’s wrong? I haven’t heard from him since we got back.”
“Really?” she asked, sounding surprised. “He left really early this morning, seeming to miraculously recover from the flu.”
I looked down at the ground. “Maybe he doesn’t want to see me but doesn’t know how to tell me. I’ll just get going then.”
I turned to leave, but Victoria reached out and put her hand on my shoulder. “Mellissa, I’m sure that is not the case. He was really ill. After you dropped us off the other day, he deteriorated fast. He looked awful and didn’t leave his room for two days.” She sighed and shrugged. “As for today, I don’t know. He is probably just hanging out with some of the guys from school. You know what an idiot he turns into when he hangs around those douchebags.”
I gave her a small smile, even though smiling was the last thing I felt like doing. “Yeah, sure.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll let him know what a terrible person he is when he gets home. Even I know about the stupidly childish things you two always do on Christmas Eve.”
“Thanks,” I said before teleporting back home.
As I materialised in the kitchen, I was hit by a cloud of smoke and the high-pitched ringing of the smoke alarms. Greg was frantically running water over a tray of burnt cookies.
“What the hell, Greg?”
Greg jumped and turned round with a startled look on his face. “I don’t know what happened. They just went up in smoke. You left without much warning, and I told you I didn’t know what I was doing.”
I climbed on the kitchen worktop and opened both windows to let the smoke out. “How the he
ll do you burn cookies this badly?”
“Your oven doesn’t work on magic energy.”
“Of course it doesn’t work on magic energy!” I snapped, jumping off the worktop.
“I told you I couldn’t bake.”
“How hard is it to take some cookies out of the oven before they burn to a crisp?”
“I said I was sorry. One batch of burnt cookies isn’t the end of the word.”
I sat at the kitchen table, my head in my hands. The cookies weren’t even what I was mad about. Yes, it was annoying, but it was easily fixed. Where was Matt? We did the same thing every year. How could he just ditch me like this? I thought everything would go back to normal on this side of the veil, but it hadn’t. I had to face it: things weren’t going to be the same anymore. I had these new powers and loads of responsibility thrust upon me. But why should that change my friendship with Matt? He had been ill according to Victoria but that didn’t explain today.
“Mellissa, where’s Matt?” Greg asked. “I thought when you disappeared that might have been where you were going.”
Why did he have to ask that? I didn’t really want to talk about it. However, it wasn’t a subject I could avoid. It was quite apparent he wasn’t going to show up. I sat up and leant back in my chair. “I don’t know where he is and neither does Victoria. He appears to have gotten a better offer for how to spend the day but didn’t bother to tell me. You know what? I don’t care. He can do what he wants.”
“If you don’t care, why are you so upset?”
“I am not upset,” I shouted, standing up and slamming my hands on the table. “I am angry. How dare he just toss me aside like yesterday’s news? I have been nothing but a good friend to him since, like, forever. He could have at least sent me a text.”
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