Today is the day everything changes. I can feel it in my bones, my blood, my heart, everywhere. The town can feel it too. They know something new is on the verge of town. And think that thing is coming for me.
Today is my thirteenth birthday, the day I finally meet my familiar, my and my family's savior. My family has been ridiculed for centuries, just because people perceive our familiars as weak.
In my opinion my family has the strongest familiars of all, it may seem ridiculous to say an earthworm is more powerful that something like a tiger. But the shape of a familiar doesn't decrease the amount of power it has. Uncle Archie's earthworm is even more powerful than a tiger because it can blend into its surroundings and no one ever suspects the power it carries.
I just wish other people saw my family as I did. I wish they saw the power in my brother's hedgehog or my sister's prairie dog. Today I can finally prove them wrong and show everyone the power my familiar carries. I just have to wait for him to find me.
Currently its 12:01 on March 24, 2019. One minute into this torturous day of waiting, my thirteenth birthday. Also one minute closer to my family's salvation for ridicule, from being the towns inside joke and the laughing stock of the world's witches.
---
I walk through town square to the grocery store to get milk like Memaw asked. My eyes can't help scan the surrounding area waiting for my familiar to come out. Maybe a fearless tiger waiting to heed my every command or a mythical beast with blood red eyes and sharp claws, prepared to tear anyone who picks on me apart.
Speaking of the people who pick on me, I hear a yell coming from behind me, "Oy, isn't that the birthday boy? You ready to find your pathetic little bunny rabbit? You ready to show us how pathetic you really are?"
I can tell who is just by hearing his loathsome putrid voice. Lucky me, it's my main bully, Adelio Heinrich. I can't believe I'm the one bullied, I mean look at his name. Either way his voice sends me running through the streets, wanting to avoid today's pummeling. Normally it's worse on my birthday, but this is going to be the last time before my familiar comes and I get my magic, so it's going to be even worse.
The taunts seem endless, but I know there is an end. There has to be. I just have to wait and wait and wait. Only 6 hours, 47 minutes and 23 seconds left till midnight and my familiar could come anytime before that. Running through the streets I constantly bump into people and things, why did this have to happen at rush hour. Well at least I might be able to blend in, probably not. They won't give up till they find me, they never do.
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What feels like an eternity later I'm limping home. No milk, money or dignity left. They caught me, as they always day. How could I feel so horrible and so defeated on the day that's supposed to change everything? This day is meant to save me from ridicule, not add more.
Only two hours left till midnight, and still nothing. No familiars in sight. When they were punching, kicking and much more to me, I couldn't help but silently beg for my familiar to come and save me from this messed up town and twisted world. Yet, the only thing I received was the feeling of endless pain.
No matter how many signs I get telling me to give up, I hold onto my hope. But at times like these it gets increasingly hard to imagine things getting any better. Hope, I have to have hope. I remind myself over and over, trying to convince myself that there's something out there worth hoping for.
Just as I finally start believing myself, I feel something wet and cold drench me. I look up to see Adelio Heinrich and his crew trying to throw more disgustings things at me. They yell and I laugh as I run and throw myself off the road into the ditches on the side, trying to free myself of them.
I land in something even wetter and squisher then what they just threw at me. I don't even want to know what I'm covered in, but my mind can't help put words and pictures to the putrid smell. I close my eyes trying to float off into a different world, unsurprisingly it doesn't work and I'm left in this miserable town.
---
It's 11:59 on March 24th, 2019. Where is my familiar? Those are the only four words going through my mind. Where is my familiar?
I hear a rustling come from the bushes. It has to be my familiar, it has to. The rustling gets louder and louder, as the seconds tick by.
The creature jumps out of the woods, and it's... my Uncle Archie?
I check the time, it's 12:01 on March 25th, 2019. My birthday has passed and I'm left with nothing, no familiar and no magic. The only thing I have is a new reason for ridicule.
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