Duncan River

I love High School. Back in Middle School I was quiet and didn’t get much notice. Then I discovered girls and made up my mind to change. Freshman year rolled around and I started going for some sports, but I wasn’t anything special. By the Spring I figured that my chances for ascending to a higher social plain were shot, but one day after baseball practice I saw Jake Lowe doing something strange in the locker room.

Jake was a senior, and ultimately cool. He got chicks. I mean he got chicks. More ass than a toilet seat. Word was that he’d slept with every hottie in the senior and junior classes. And he got along with all of the cliques: gearheads, jocks, goths, metalheads, it didn’t matter. Jake was a player. He had women, he had respect, and all that added up to power.

And I caught him casting a glamour spell on himself. He didn’t see me, and I wouldn’t want to think about what he might have done to me if he had. I’d heard rumors about magic, but nobody believed that stuff. But you can bet that I became a believer, big time. It was just like in that movie, man. I had seen behind the curtain. The Wizard of Oz had magic after all, and it was all about manipulating the munchkins.

I scarfed some books from a few of the goth kids are started lurking in every freakazoid chat room I could find. Most of them were trash, filled with Dungeons and Dragons nerdbombs and fantasy-loving losers. Eventually, I picked up some tricks and spell ingredient lists and started practicing. First, I overhauled my look starting with the clothes. Dad works as an accountant for the City, and Mom works in a doctor’s office, so I could never afford the good stuff. Now I didn’t need to. A few rituals and my look said Money. Next, I had to sound smooth, so after a little more research of the dark recesses of the Net I could talk like a Cool Kid. No more stammering when I went to chat up the ladies. Soon, other kids were talking about me, sucking up to me. A spell a day keeps the uncool away, and it even gives you a bit of a buzz. Beats paying four dollars at Starbucks.

I love my life now. I’ve been casting more and more, and I’m careful not to get caught. Give me a couple of years and I’ll be bigger than Jake Lowe ever was. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do in the chick department, but with my newfound coolness that can’t be far away. I won’t even need to get into the serious mind altering magics. Those are heavy stuff anyway, and messing with the inside of somebody’s head like that doesn’t seem right … right?

Quote: “Man, what type of look are you going for? I hear that 'dusted' is in.”