*The following is a pre-writing exercise for my current writing project. Jaycie is the antagonist and here is a look inside her head on where her anger comes from*
I remember the first day I saw Nadine. It was my third day of final school and she was in the graduating class, four years over me. I saw her across the courtyard with her circle of friends, and I knew right then that she was a snob. Her neatly pressed uniform and her shoes all shined; it was almost too perfect. My second thought was that she had something to hide, and I wanted to find out what it was.
But after that first day, I didn’t see her much. She was always in the back of my mind, though. The front of my mind was more preoccupied with school. Because suddenly, I was failing. I’d been the top of my class through the last eight years, and I’d been so excited to finally learn magic, and I was the worst. I couldn’t cast a simple spell to stir my tea, let alone one to change the color of my hair. And I knew Nadine was some genius witch, and it just made my blood boil even more.
And the madder I got, the more magical I felt. I still couldn’t cast a spell, but something was happening. So, I held on to my anger and I did what I was best at; I did research. And what I found out gave me a bit of hope. Just a little though, because in the end I still wouldn’t be a powerful spell caster.
But I read about Leeching. Witches and wizards born without the innate ability to cast can steal power from others and funnel it through themselves to use as their own. And I had figured out how to unlock that sole power inside myself by being angry. I read everything I could on the subject, which wasn’t much in the school library. Obviously they didn’t want us young students to figure out we could steal power from each other.
Instead, I ordered books to be sent to me at school. And gradually I brought my grades up by stealing a little here and there from my classmates. I wasn’t able to Leech the teachers; they seemed to have a barrier up. I did more research; apparently only weaklings are susceptible to being Leeched. This knowledge did not make me feel better. Because, sure, I’d scrape through the next year, maybe the one after… but I wouldn’t be able to steal power and pass it off as my own when my classmates got stronger.
I set my sights on Nadine. Nadine the perfect senior with a ridiculous power that she seemed to barely wave a finger and get the air in the room spinning around her.
It just wasn’t fair.
Because Nadine was my sister. She just didn’t know it.
I’d dug the information out of the genealogy department on the first day. Only final school students are allowed in there and I’d been so excited to find out if I had any relatives. I was tired of being alone. But when I realized who I was related to… I thought being alone might not be that bad after all.
I tried to get close to her and Leech her power, but it was no use. She had a shield thicker than most of the teachers, and I didn’t even think she was aware of it. She was a natural. The bitch.
By Christmas they expelled me. The teachers caught on to what I was doing. They said they should have figured it out before I’d been allowed to final school, but I must have slipped through by accident. And if I’d just approached a faculty member at the beginning of the year, they could have helped me. But I had Leeched instead, so I was sent back to the normal realm and they revoked my Sky Bridge token.
I had to make a new plan. Because Nadine was still my target. I’d do research while I waited for her to graduate in the spring. And I would take her down. Because I needed to steal her power. I deserved it. It wasn’t fair that our parents had passed none of it on to me, and she was going to pay for their mistake. I just had to figure out how.