Hidden Magic

Suspicions

“Mum!” Rosie called and kicked the door shut behind her. “We’re home!”


Mum crashed out of the kitchen - literally. She held a big, metallic baking tray full of pink and blue-frosted cute cupcakes. “Hello my beautiful daughters,” she said, and winced as the hot tray bumped the part of her arm that wasn’t covered with the gloves. “Try one of my cupcakes for me?”


Amy made a fake retching sound. “Ewwwww, no!” She whined; the noise that made Rosie want to reach over and strangle her. “I’ll get fat! For god’s sake, mum!”


Rosie rolled her eyes. “You are such a pathetic drama queen, Ames.” Scowling at her sister, she took one of the delicious-looking cupcakes. “Thank you, mum.”


Mum grinned as Rosie nodded in approval of the sweet recipe. “No problem, honey.” Mum turned to Amy and squinted. “Now, you. I would very much appreciate it if you’d stop behaving like a spoilt brat and get to unpacking your many boxes of junk upstairs.” Mum looked her up and down as if noticing her daughter's outfit for the first time. "And I'd appreciate if if you'd stop dressing like that."


“Woo, go mum!” Rosie laughed and cheered.


Amy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever, bitches,” she back-chatted, and stomped upstairs.


Mum shook her head and sighed. “That goes for you too.” She glanced Rosie’s way, and it was hard for her to ignore the sad shadow that loomed in her eyes. “I want all your stuff unpacked tonight, and I’ll think about letting you change those ‘boring white walls’ as you put it, to purple.”


She grinned. “Really? Awesome!” She grabbed a tissue from the little hall table and wiped the pretty pink icing from her mouth. “I will. And don’t stress, mum. I’ve heard it’s not good for aging.”


Mum raised her eyebrows, but the edges of her lips turned up a little. “Don’t be cheeky, madam. And like I ever stress.”


“Oh, yeah. You definitely do not.” Smiling, Rosie hoisted her schoolbag over her shoulder and ran upstairs to her bedroom.


The room was big and had clean, ice-white walls with a nice cream carpet. Needs some personalizing, she thought, and dumped her bag on the double bed. The only thing in the bedroom she had actually bothered to unpack. It had pretty purple flowers all over the duvet, which made her happy; because purple. The clothes she’d worn this morning had come from the duffel bag that sat on her floor.


Sighing, she sat down beside one of the many boxes that crowded the majority of the floor space in her empty room. Rosie uncovered an old picture. It was of her, mum, Amy and dad. She felt her eyes dampen with emotion as she took in her dad’s smiling face. She’d been a young girl in this photo. Six maybe? And Amy looked about three years old. When she was still sweet and didn’t talk, she couldn’t help but think.


She looked back at her dad’s face and mourned how things had used to be. How easy life had seemed. When everything in her world had been complete and perfect. Happy. “I miss you, dad,” she whispered. “I wish you were still here, but then, it’s not like you even care, is it?” Rosie couldn’t stop the tears that broke free and fell down her cheeks. The thought of what her dad had done; the information that he was the most selfish human being to ever walk the planet. Who chooses rich business and slutty women over their own family? Over their own loving wife? She felt a hot burst of fury course through her veins, and felt like she could rip the photo into a thousand tiny, broken pieces. Like everything was now.


But then, the doorbell rang.





She heard her mum open the door and say, “Oh, hello.”


“Hello, Mrs Parker?” A familiar female voice said. “Can I see Rosie please?”


She jumped. Oh crap, it’s Amber! She felt panic as she remembered what Amy had told her on the way home. What am I going to do? It could be true? Tip-toeing quietly, she made her way down the hall and peered through the oak banister.


Rosie could see her mum was facing Amber at the door and they were talking. Amber’s face set into a sweet smile. It all seemed so innocent and genuine, and kind. But what if it’s not? Her paranoia asked.


“Rosie!” Mum’s voice shouted up, making her suddenly fall back in surprise and lose her balance so her butt fell to the floor in an awkward position. She tried to hold it so she wouldn’t be noticed. “There’s a friend at the door for you called...” Mum paused and she heard her ask Amber. “Her name’s Amber... From school.”


“Okay,” she forced out, and collected herself. She took a few breaths before walking down the stairs.


“Amber. Hi,” she said, in her best nonchalant voice. “What are you doing here?”


Amber smiled, making Rosie doubt how she could ever consider the girl doing anything remotely wrong. “I just thought you might want to hang out, with you not knowing many people yet?”


Bad idea, something told her.


“I...can’t,” she stuttered. “I, um...have to unpack today. Sorry.”


Mum intruded, “No, its fine. You can unpack later, Hun. You’ll only be gone for an hour, right?” Mum turned to Amber for reassurance.


“Right.” Amber nodded and flashed a polite smile her mum’s way. “So, do you want to come, Rosie?”


“Where to?” She asked warily.


“There’s a park a couple blocks away.”


Rosie looked over at her mum; she seemed happy. Probably because I’ve actually made a friend, she thought grimly. She sighed silently. “Uh, sure. Okay then.”


Amber smiled, but she couldn’t help but notice that it wasn’t touching her eyes. “Great! Let’s go then. It was very nice to meet you, Mrs Parker.”


“Call me Sarah,” mum said cheerfully. “It was nice to meet you too, sweetie.” She closed the front door with a light click of locks behind them.


Amber linked her arm excitedly and pulled her down the street. “Come on, Rosie Posie. Let’s go.”





Amber sat down on a bright yellow swing and gestured for Rosie to sit on the one next to her. Once she had sat down Amber started to swing back and forth in a perfect rhythm. The silence went on for so long that when Amber spoke again, she jumped and nearly slid off her swing. “So, how was the rest of your day?” She looked across at Rosie. “I haven’t seen you since lunch. Were the classes any good? Got any teacher opinions yet, hmm?”


Rosie moved some chestnut hair that had blown into her face from the gentle breeze that blew around them. She couldn’t look at Amber; it felt weird. It felt weird not to know whether she trusted her or not; whether she wanted out of this friendship. So instead she focused on the tall, green-leafed tree’s that lined the park. “It was fine, thanks.”


“Okay.” Amber placed her feet sternly on the ground and the swing came to a fast halt. She gave Rosie a piercing look. “What’s the matter with you?”


“Matter with me?”


“You’re feeling...strange. I can sense it.”


“You can sense it?” Rosie raised her eyebrows.


Amber quickly moved her gaze to the ground, and moved her foot slowly across the fresh blades of grass. “”See it... I mean.”


“No you didn’t.”


“I did. Sometimes I mess up my words, especially when I’m nervous.” She looked up at Rosie for a second; her eyes wide. “I’m sorry.”


“Huh... Well, okay.” Rosie started to move the swing around in circles and kicked her feet on the ground every so often. “So, what do you want?”


“I thought I already said to hang out?”


“Well, I can sense something is wrong with you,” she said, mimicking Amber’s words and voice sarcastically.


The corners of Amber’s mouth turned up into a smile and she looked up at her again. She started moving the swing in the same perfect rhythm as before, and titled her head to the side as if thinking deeply. “I guess you could say that,” Amber mumbled and a dry chuckle escaped her lips. She shook her head and looked over at Rosie. “I’m fine... Actually, I’m avoiding home.”


“Why? What’s up?”


“Just home issues. It’s nothing to worry about.”


“Well, I wanna know.” She shot Amber a concerned look. “Home issues like what?”


Amber sighed. “My mum.” She shrugged as if trying to play it off as no big deal. “Mum drama, that’s all.”


“Like she won’t buy you that new, really expensive, awesome phone or more serious than that?”


Amber laughed and shrugged again. “Maybe so.”


Rosie frowned, which caused Amber to laugh again. “Can I help?”


“No, and you look funny when you frown.”


“Thanks.”


“No problem.” Amber giggled, and then kicked her feet off the ground, making the swing go higher and higher. Rosie just stared at her. Her feelings a cross between worried and annoyed; leaning more towards annoyed at that moment. Eventually, Amber slowed down and went back to the same rhythm as before. She sighed tiredly when she saw her looking, waiting for a better answer. “No, Rosie, you still can’t help. Trust me. You don’t want to.”


“Try me.” She turned her swing to face her. “I’m a great listener, and it’s not like I won’t know how you feel. I’ve been dealing with a bad home situation for a while now. What with my mum being basically nonfictional for a while after my dad left.”


“I can’t tell you.” Amber’s voice sounded stern and serious. “And trust me; this is way more different than you think. You wouldn’t understand.”


“Again, I say try me. I’m an understanding person!”


Amber shook her head, still keeping the swing’s rhythm of back and forth. “I don’t like to talk about it. Leave it now, Rosie. Please?”


“Fine.”


“Look, I’m sorry...” She paused. “I’ve known you a day and I really don’t know anything about you. So why would I...”


“Wait,” Rosie interrupted urgently. “I need to ask you something.”


“Sure.” Amber shrugged. “As long as it’s not about...”


“It’s not,” she promised. This is a really, really, really bad idea, she thought, but unless she asked she was never going to know for sure. Never going to know if wanted to believe in Amber. Know Amber and be her friend. If Amber turned out to be a crazy psychopath, this could set her off; but she had to know. Rosie swallowed her fear and continued, “Did you have anything to do with the murder of that girl?”


Amber immediately stopped swinging and stared at her; pupils wide and afraid. “Um... What?” She stuttered.


“Did you kill that girl?”


“No! Of course I didn’t!” Amber opened her mouth to say something else, but then closed it and looked down at the floor; playing with the blades of fresh-smelling grass again with her foot. Her voice was unsteady when she spoke again, “How do you know about that already?”


“I’m not saying.” Rosie felt scared now. Is she going to flip out on me? Kill me too? This was a stupid idea...


“Okay.” Amber looked up and smiled at her. She looked like she was trying to be comforting. She could probably tell how scared Rosie was by looking at her. “A lot of people accused me of killing that girl, but Rosie you have to believe that I didn’t. I swear it.” She sighed. “People just want to blame someone, especially when things don’t add up. This time the easiest place to pin the blame was me.”


Rosie nodded.


“No matter what you heard or who from, I did not kill her. She was my friend... My best friend. Okay?”


“Okay,” she said, feeling guilty now. “I’m sorry for bringing it up. It’s just...”


“You wanted to be sure what you were getting into,” Amber finished for her. “Whether you should run a thousand miles from me, right?” She did that dry, humourless chuckle again. “You still should, Ro. Always.”


Rosie didn’t understand what she meant or even ask. She didn’t want to give the poor girl any more grief today, even if she was acting strange. “I will.”


“Great,” Amber cheered up. “Hey, meet me by the school gates tomorrow. Maybe I can meet your sister too? I’m sure that’d be cool.”


“You won’t be saying that after you’ve met her,” she mumbled.


Amber laughed and shook her head at Rosie. “Don’t be mean. She’s your sister.”


“Exactly.”


“All right. Come on, let’s get you home.” Amber hopped up from the swing and stood before her. She reached a hand out and pulled Rosie up. Rosie noticed that weird sort of static shock again, but ignored it. Figuring it to be from the swings.


“Yeah, about that, how do you know where I live?” Rosie couldn’t remember giving her any directions earlier.


“Oh.” Amber flashed a mischievous smile. “It’s a small town.”