Chapter Text
It had been a complete accident. It wasn’t even entirely her fault either. If her youngest sisters would stop breaking everything they touched, she wouldn’t have gotten so mad. And if they hadn’t of made her mad, she wouldn’t have accidentally destroyed Papa Dave’s prized guitar. Of course when she broke it, there had been a collective gasp from her siblings, her grandparents, and herself. She had cried profusely and begged for forgiveness, even though she didn’t know how the guitar even broke from the other side of the room. Her mother and father had been called back from their date night early, and little Guinevere Reid thought her life was over at the age of ten.
Yet her life had continued. Her mother had calmed her down as best she could, assuring her that her grandfather wasn’t mad, and she’d be able to fix the guitar. Her mother asked her how she destroyed the guitar when she was on the other side of the room. Guinevere explained what had happened, getting upset again at her sisters’ disregard for her things. The lamp beside her bed had shattered then.
That was when Guinevere was told the most extraordinary thing she could have ever been told. Her mother told her about how magic was real and how she had been about Guinevere’s age when she discovered she too had magic. Her mother recounted tales of her adventures in an amazing school where Guinevere would most likely be attending. She couldn’t have been happier than she was in that moment.
It was on her eleventh birthday, nearly a year later, that Guinevere received the one thing she’d been wanting more than anything. Her mother had brought the letter in and handed it over to her. She’d squealed excitedly, almost tearing the envelope to get to the letter. She read it over carefully, making a mental note of everything she would need, lest her sisters found a way to destroy this too.
“How come she gets to have magic?” her younger sister, Natalia, whined. She sat at their kitchen table, her head resting on her arms. She bolted up, a look of fiery determination on her face. “I want magic too.”
“Me too!” chimed in the youngest of her siblings, Lily. Guinevere shook her head, grabbing the letter and rereading for what had to be the hundredth time in the past hour alone. Her mother placed a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder, turning to face her sisters and brothers.
“Gwen having magic, or any of you for that matter, was not something your father and I had been planning on,” she said calmly. Her mother was beautiful in every sense of the word. She had long, brown hair that she almost always kept up, the most vibrant blue eyes anyone had ever seen, and a kind smile. A kind smile that was only matched by her kind personality and her ability to know everything without anyone needing to tell her. “I can’t decide who does and doesn’t get magic. Truth be told, if I could, none of you would have magic.” Gwen frowned at this, turning to her dad.
She loved her mother dearly, but she was closer to her father, as were most of her siblings. She looked exactly like him too. She had his soft, light brown hair, honey brown eyes that were as vibrant as her mother’s, an upturned nose, albeit more round than his, and his smile. He offered her a slight shrug, signaling her to listen to what her mother had to say.
“With that being said, Gwen having magic doesn’t change anything. We still love her and will treat her with the kindness and respect she deserves. Understood?” Everyone nodded, going back to eating their slices of cake. Gwen clutched the letter excitedly. In September, she’d be on her way to learn how to properly use magic. The next months were going to be long for her.