Kate's Calamity

Kate's Calamity

Why had Kate ever messed around with magic, she was only in her first
year of training and everything had gone so horribly wrong. The Idea
was that she and Pericles would run away together to a different
dimension. They had made such a striking couple, her with eyes like
emeralds, perfectly contoured body and forest of curly hair that was as
uncontrollable as her passion for Pericles who was tall and strong and
hansom, quite popular with all the first years at the Girls Academy For
Magicians, luckily though he only had eyes for Kate (that spell had
worked).

Everything had gone so wrong!

She had done all the preparation, there were 7 candles in a circle
around them, she'd been drinking vodka like it was going out of fashion
so that she could have all 7 candles held in matching bottles. Then
there was an outer circle of ash, and that had taken some collecting.
Then within the circle she sprinkled hundreds of coloured pieces of
foil, the amount of chocolate she had to eat to collect all
those.
The whole thing had been nothing but hard work from beginning to end;
still it was ready now.

Pericles sat opposite Kate in the circle, staring deep into Kate's
beautiful emerald eyes, completely mesmerised (you could say spell
bound). Kate started the incantations everything was going fine, the
air had turned to a hazy blue and the walls were bowing outwards just
like the instructions in the book had said they would.

Then disaster struck.

Kate's Guardian had come back from the shops early, (every trainee
magician was allotted a guardian to teach them good morals and install
a work ethic, Kate's was particularly grumpy and bad tempered, but then
she did have a lot on her plate being Kate's guardian) She came
storming into Kate's bedroom shouting something about somebody having
been sick all over the bathroom (well your health is bound to suffer
consuming all that chocolate and vodka).

There was a massive explosion, it was like Kate's bedroom was a balloon
and her guardian was the pin that burst it. There was an enormous rush
of air; there were chocolate wrappers everywhere and all three of them
were tumbling through space.
The next thing she knew the three of them were living in a small
terraced house, Pericles was called Dave and knew nothing of Kate or
their old dimension, for some reason he couldn't even see Kate anymore;
all he wanted to do was dribble over the girl in the news agents.
Kate's guardian was now playing the roll of her Mum and was in the
process of trying to get them back again and had banned Kate from doing
any more magic until they sorted this mess out; she was still very bad
tempered and grumpy. For some reason she blamed Kate for all this when
it was she who had upset the spell and made it all go wrong.

Kate spent most of her time doing chores for her grumpy guardian, who
in turn was spending most of her time trying to find a door back to
their old dimension. When Kate wasn't doing chores she liked to follow
Pericles or "Dave" as he now called himself, not quite the same ring to
it; in fact "Dave" was quite pathetic really, it was so sad. Everything
was so wrong.

"Dave" was behaving even more strangely today, for one thing he'd
managed to get out of bed while the time was still in single figures,
he'd managed to cut himself shaving again, God he was pathetic. There
he was eating his coco-pops, Kate couldn't leave him like this,
something must be done; it was too awful to bear.

Perhaps if people liked and respected him, then he wouldn't be so
unhappy with himself, surely that would mend some of the wrongs Kate
had done. Kate ran upstairs to watch him from the bathroom window as he
walked down the road. By the sink there was a page from a magazine, it
was an advert for that stupid razor that he'd cut himself with earlier,
such a prat. Still the bloke in the ad was quite dishy.

That was it, that's what she should do for him.

Who cares what her stupid guardian had said about not using magic and
upsetting the natural vortex or something, what did she know anyway;
all she did was wander round trying to find some stupid door that
probably wasn't there anyway. Kate could really make things
better.

She picked up the advertisement and held her hand over the picture of
the dishy bloke. She could feel the magic tingling over her palm.
Kate looked out of the window; Dave was talking to Mr Barker from next
door. Strange, she didn't know they knew each other. Mr Barker was too
close, she waited for what seemed an eternity; the magic was giving her
pins and needles in her hand. Finally Mr Barker turned away, this was
it, this was her chance. She threw the magic out of the window with all
her strength. It roared down the street hitting Dave with such force
that it blew the piece of loo paper off his face.

Nothing really seemed to happen, Dave turned and strode off in his
usual manner. Then he started to jiggle up and down as he walked, this
was a little odd, still wait and see.

There was shouting and screaming coming from next door, those two never
stopped arguing. Then it moved out onto the street Mrs Barker was
pushing Mr Barker out onto the pavement screaming at him to hurry up
and run. This didn't look good.

Kate ran into her bedroom and opened the wardrobe, she reached in and
pulled out her magic boots. They were quite high and had silver buckles
on the side. It had taken her ages to save up for them but they were
worth every penny for they made her invisible to everyone, including
her grumpy guardian.

"Clump, clump, clump"

Unfortunately Kate couldn't afford the top of the range boots that came
with a silent running feature.

She walked down the pavement as quietly as she could, she couldn't see
Dave but she knew where he was; in the newsagents drooling over that
girl that he liked so much. Kate didn't understand what he saw in her,
she only hoped he wouldn't create a scene like the one the other day.
Kate could see Mr Barker just going into the shop. Two seconds later
Dave fell out of the same door and started running down the road in his
useless gangly fashion.

Not again!

Kate slipped her magic boots into top gear and raced after him.

"Clumpety-clumpety-clumpety-clumpety"

She soon caught him up, grabbing his belt and propelling him across the
main road and into the park.
Kate glanced back and saw Mr Barker wobbling along in hot
pursuit.
Dave seemed to be trying to get to the grounds man's shed. For some
reason Dave always went there when things got too much for him and he
wanted to hide from the rest of the world, he didn't know that Kate
often followed him there and sat with him for hours. He always felt
safe there.
Kate let go of Dave's belt and he collapsed in a heap against the wall,
his head between his knees.
Mr barker came wheezing round the corner, he stopped in front of Dave
and held out a magazine. Dave just sat there. Mr Barker stood there,
although Kate was concerned that Mr Barker may not be able to keep it
up very long, all that running may have been a shock to the
system.
Finally Dave looked up, only it wasn't quite Dave, it was more like the
dishy bloke from the advert.
Kate's spell had worked!