Another Me

Once we all gathered, we headed up to the top floor. This hotel offered four penthouse suites. Each one was bigger than the apartment my mom and me lived in and cost more for one night than what my mom made in a year. Whoever was throwing the party had rented all four. The blaring music could be heard only when we opened the stairway fire door. The first thing I saw was over a dozen teens, with drinks in their hands, milling about the hallway linking the rooms. Most were just talking but there was at least one couple in a deep embrace. The boy's hand blatantly under the girl's skirt as she kissed him fiercely.

The doors the suites were propped open allowing access to anybody that came to this floor. As we walked to the first door, I could see over twenty teens eating, drinking, and taking turns playing games on the large TV. I saw several kids I knew and a few with clothing indicating that they were from the school we just played against. The place was large enough to make us not feel crowded and I was led to the table full of drinks. Most of the options were high end beers but there was soda and hard liquor mixed in so people could choose what they wanted to drink. I didn't even think about it and grabbed a water. But I was the only one not drinking. Janet and Victoria grabbed a beer while Ann took a mixed drink from a boy who was making drinks for people.

Neal, Ann's boyfriend, appeared with his friends shortly after we arrived. "Ann, you finally showed up. You finally got your mysterious friend Stephanie to come out. I'm shocked." He smiled at his own wit. I gave a nod when he mentioned me but no other indication. He didn't seem to mind and continued, "Are you hungry? Let's grab something to eat." He wasn't talking to me and pulled Ann back toward the food without waiting for an answer.

While that had gone on, Brad and Paul had started talking Janet and Victoria and slowly separated them from me. In a room full of people, I soon found myself standing too close to Neal's remaining flunk, Jeff.

Jeff was around five' nine and could have been handsome if he worked out a little bit more. As it was, he looked a bit "soft" for his position on the team. I also found that I liked looking at men’s abs. I'm not even sure why but clearly Jeff didn't fit in the 'I got a six pack' category.

I took a sip of my water as I heard him saying, "Hi I'm Jeff. If you don't mind, I can show you around. I'm throwing this party, so I know where everything is. For example, this suite is mostly food. The one next to us there is more entertainment. If you like to sing, dance, or gamble that's the room for you."

He kept talking but as I looked around, I saw Brad say something to Victoria and a look of excitement cross her face. Without hesitation, she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room. Janet wasn’t much better. She was laughing with Paul and after a minute or so, she walked out of the room with him. Ann didn’t leave the suite but went deep into it with Neal. I cursed silently as I watched everybody leave. I didn't even want to be here, much less alone. The thought of leaving crossed my mind but I wasn't sure how safe this place and I had gotten close to Victoria over the last week. I didn't want to leave her here.

Jeff finally noticed I was looking for my friends and not listening and a little louder, "Oh, I think your friends went to check out the other rooms. He paused and then said, “I heard you like karaoke and sing like an angel. Why don't we go take a look? I’d love to hear you sing."

He moved to grab my hand like Neal had done to Ann, but I scooted back a step causing his grab to fall short. He gave an embarrassed chuckle but didn't leave. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything by that. I thought I could act as your escort. Without somebody by your side, you'll only have to deal others trying to get your attention and relaxing would become a hassle."

"Thanks, but I really didn’t come to relax. My friends wanted me to come, although now I don’t know why I bothered.” If Jeff's words were to be believed he was rich, not that I cared. I wasn’t looking to hook up and didn’t want a boyfriend. Even if I wanted to have sex to get another spell, I was so sore down there, that it even hurt to pee.

Ignoring him, I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and called Victoria. It only rang three times before she answered. "Sorry Steph, Brad pulled me to see a painting by an artist I like. Do you want to join us? We're in the far suite. This place has a different painting from Chang Dai-Chien in each room. His splash ink style is worth seeing. You should hurry over."

I laughed as relief washed over me. I didn't know what any of that painting lingo meant but at least I knew where she was. I replied, "No, you have fun. I’m not that interested in paintings. I’ll just walk around until you’re ready to go."

I turned to Jeff and said, “I’m going to walk around.” I didn’t say it to be rude. I had planned to just say it and leave but Jeff took it as an invitation and followed me down the hall. He wasn't wrong about people bothering me. Even with him walking with me, I was asked by two boys if I wanted to join them. They didn't say for what, but I could guess. Of the four areas on this floor, the one they pointed at didn't have any lights on and as I watched some boys came out still adjusting their clothes. I used the "Sorry, I'm with somebody" excuse and kept moving.

I walked into the “entertainment” suite and saw it had been sectioned off. The main room was being used for karaoke but there were signs hung up saying “card games” this way, with an arrow pointing further in. Currently, there were two boys singing a duet. Surprisingly, they weren’t bad. The one boy still had a high tone and it melded well with his friends.

I was listening to them when Jeff spoke in my ear, "I know your concerned about your friends, so I asked Paul and he said he went to play poker with Janet. Something about getting extra spending money. She'll be there for a while.” He pointed to the card game area. “We can go look so you know she’s ok.”

I wasn’t that close to Janet yet, but I still nodded and said, “Thank you, you didn’t have to do that.”

“You’re welcome. I just want you to enjoy yourself and have seen you in school a lot. You always seem like you’re under pressure. Looking at you reminded me of my father. How he worked himself to death.” His eyes were a little red as he recounted his dad but had an imploring look as he continued, “I couldn’t stand seeing a girl as beautiful as yourself going the same way, so I asked Ann to invite you.”

We were walking into the back rooms as he talked, and I got to see the how the place was set up. There were serval bedrooms, but the beds had been pulled out and round tables had replaced them. Each room had a different game. Janet was in the second to last room and had a stack of chips in front of her. She was playing against three boys and one girl that had around the same amount of chips.

I didn’t go in. After I saw she was fine, I turned around and walked back out. I thought about what he said. “I appreciate your intention, but we all have our own struggles.” I thought about what I had done since I got here and added, “To be successful, you have to do things others aren’t willing to.”

“True, but… you should relax too.” He looked so sincere when he was talking to me that I begrudgingly had to admit that this world’s Jeff wasn’t as bad as I thought. “Why don’t you give singing a try? Ann said you used to like it.”

“Singing to a bunch of drink teenagers?”

“Why not? That way if you sing badly, they won’t remember. Plus, you have time to waste.”

“Fine, fine, it does look like I have been abandoned for a while. I will give it a try.” There was a que, so we had to wait. Jeff had gone to get a list of the songs and we looked over the list and discussed the type of song I should sing. It was just idol chit-chat to kill the time and soon I was on standing in front of a group of teens.

I had picked the song 'Lights' by Ellie Goulding and began to sing to the accompaniment. From school I knew my new voice was amazing but actually singing a full song with a band strengthening it, made it even better. I watched as I sang "You show the lights" and the room seemed to light up and I briefly wondered if Jeff was playing with the lights. He wasn't. He was standing off to the side where I left him and was staring at me in shock. He stood there not moving as I sang the rest of the verse "stop me turn to stone". Somebody was! The lights flickered and dimmed as I sang, and I finally closed my eyes so I wouldn't get distracted.

The dozen or so teens that were coherent enough to listen gave me a round of applause when I finished, and I quickly got off stage. With a voice like hers, I could see why Stephanie liked to sing. Jeff had clapped his hands red and with a look of excitement, "When did you awaken your magic? That was amazing!"

At first, I didn't understand what he was talking about but as he continued to ramble on how good I was, a hazy memory started nagging at the back of my mind. It had something to do with music but the more I thought the more the memory faded away. Frustrated, I open my phone and searched 'music and magic'. Dozens of pages on how songs influenced magic and a few articles on how a budding artist blew himself up creating a new song popped up. The gist wasn't hard to understand. In a world where words had power, songs were dangerous and had to be screened before being released to the public.

The songs released were worded in such a way that most people couldn't activate their magic while singing. This was because the creators had used the rhythm and counter wording to mess with the activation. But that was only for ninety percent of the population. A top-level magician could put some of their magic into the song and if their elements matched, cause a phenomenon. For example, an air magic might be able to make his audience hover if he sung about flying. Because of that most of the top singers were not only talented musicians but also powerful casters off the stage.

"I was stunned when I saw a light aura appear around you. You looked like an angel. And when sand 'Turn to stone' I felt my joints stiffen. You are amazing." I only glanced at my phone, so Jeff was still blowing rainbow farts when I looked back up.

I waited for him to take a breath and cut in, "I actually forgot that would happen. Could you do me a favor and not bring it up." I didn't have much hope that the others didn't notice for affects but there wasn't a lot of people and some of them didn't go to our school. The less people that talked about it, the better.

He looked dazed at my question but still asked, "Sure, but why?"

"I'm still figuring out how it awakened. Until I am sure and can repeat it, I didn't want others to know."

"It'll be a secret between us." He assured me but I looked at the dozen kids that just gave a round of applause to the girl that followed me, and he changed his words. "Well, I won't say anything. Why don't we go try the gaming area while we wait for your friends. That should be safe."