Perseverance

1

Happy new year, from Grace Bowen!

On the first of January 2020 I got the best news of my life. I ran home, glowing.

“Derek,” I called my brother.

I went to his room, but he came out before I’d reached it.

“What’s up, Grace?” he asked.

“I was accepted at the Tournament of Magic,” I squealed.

“Really?” he beamed.

I threw my arms around him. We went to tell our parents and our sister, Mallory.

Mallory was in her room getting ready to go out with her friends. Mom and Dad came.

“What’s going on?” Mom asked.

“I got accepted at the Tournament of Magic,” I announced.

“That’s great,” Mom said.

“Congratulations,” Dad said.

I was a little less happy when I realized that they would have been happier had it been Mallory who was accepted.

Everybody turned to Mallory.

Mallory was two years older than me and she wanted to be a doctor.

“Where are you going, honey?” Mom asked her.

“I’m going to hang out with my friends,” Mallory answered.

My parents were always telling Mallory that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Sixteen years ago, I’d asked my parents if I was just as beautiful as Mallory and they’d said no. I was only ten at the time so I cried in my room. Derek, who’d been four, came and I told him what happened. He sat down next to me and hugged me. We were close, but neither of us was close to our parents or our sister. We resented Mallory for being arrogant. I also resented my parents. Mom and Dad had told her throughout her whole life that she was the most beautiful woman in the world and it got to her head.

I didn’t think I was beautiful, but I didn’t think Mallory was more beautiful than I was. We both had wavy red hair, but I had blue eyes and Mallory had green eyes. I was taller than Mallory. Derek was taller than either of us and had red hair and blue eyes like me. His hair was short.

I always focused on the good things in my life and tried to be as happy as I could be.

“I’m more beautiful than you are,” Mallory gloated.

Mom and Dad didn’t scold her.

Mallory was cuckoo.

I felt bad, so I tried to cheer myself up by focusing on the tournament.

The Tournament of Magic took place every four years on the island of Lowena. It lasted a whole year. Witches and wizards applied and ten were accepted. Five men and five women. There were always three judges. For this tournament the judges were a man and two women. At first, there were five battles and in each battle two people competed. Each of the winners then battled the other four who had won their battles. Whoever won more battles won the tournament.

People could use their different types of magic. Some people could become invisible. Some could talk to animals or turn into them. Some had telekinesis. Some had fire magic. Mallory had fire magic and could heal herself and others. Derek could shoot magic out of his hands. I could put a force field around myself and I could transform people and objects with a touch.

The tournament had existed on Lowena for as long as civilization had. All of the battles were held in an arena in front of an audience. People loved watching the tournament because it was exciting. Lots of people liked to practice magic too and everyone wanted to know who the winner would be.

The winner of the tournament was the most powerful witch or wizard on Lowena.

I knew that every four years there was a new winner, but it would be nice to be one of the most powerful witches on Lowena.

I’d competed in many magic competitions in school and in college and I did well, which I put on my application for The Tournament of Magic.

Derek and I went to my room and spent an hour talking about the tournament.

“When’s the first battle?” Derek asked.

“At the beginning of February.”

“Are you one of the participants?”

“No, which means I have a lot of time to practice.”

I’d been practicing magic since I was a kid. Practicing magic was my favorite hobby. I was grateful that I’d been practicing for so long because I didn’t think I would have been able to enter the tournament if I hadn’t. At least, I wouldn’t have been able to enter this young.

I also wanted to write books on magic, which was why I’ve been doing a lot of research and conducting experiments since I started college. I graduated four years ago.

“What are you doing?” Derek asked me later that night.

I was sitting at my desk in my room and going through some books.

“I’m trying to find information on teleporting,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because I want to do it, but there’s not a lot written about it.”

“Probably because not a lot of people have been able to do it.”

“I know.”

“Only a few people have been able to do it during the last hundred years.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, when I find out how it’s done I’m going to write about it, so more people would be able to do it,” I declared.

“Have you finished any books yet?”

“Of course, not. It takes years to write a book, but I have written bullet points for several books.”

I’d researched the library at my college before I graduated, then the public libraries, bookstores and the Internet. I knew it would be years before I could publish my books, but I was okay with that and I was looking forward to doing the work.

I couldn’t find out how teleporting worked, but I thought maybe if I combined flying and running really fast I might be able to teleport. They were the two closest things to teleporting, so if I perfected them and combined them inside me, I might be able to teleport.

The next day, I went running. I went every day. Derek and my best friend, Sara, sometimes joined me. Sara also listened to me whenever I told her how my parents treated Derek and me.

I had been practicing flying for a few years. I could fly, but it was difficult and I needed to concentrate the whole time. Only half the population could fly. The other half wasn’t interested in doing the work or couldn’t do the work. Perfecting flying took a lot of effort and a lot of time.

I spent most of my days practicing for the tournament, working on my books and drawing with Derek.