"Good luck, Mum. Good luck, Dad." Loni whispered in her parent's ears as they left for the stage. While they had done this stunt hundreds of times for live audiences and practiced even more, she couldn't help but worry. After all, they were literally playing with fire.

"We'll be fine, honey." Her mother said over her shoulder. "But make sure you carefully watch the spinning. You'll need to do it someday, too."

"Ya, right." Loni mumbled under her breath. She sat back down on the stiff bench with a sigh. Speaking Louder now, Lani said,

"Yes, mom. Be safe!" Her parents rushed out behind the curtain with their materials just as the velvet curtain opened. In their matching black sequined outfits, they certainly looked magical.

And with that, Mr. and Mrs. Leibbrand were onstage in front of thousands of applauding onlookers. The announcer, a pudgy Hawaiian man in a floral shirt and cargo pants, yelled into the squealing microphone,

"The Leibbrand Magicians, come all da way from da England!"

Loni closed her eyes and sighed, "Please don't burn down the auditorium, mum."

Her mum started first, waving around a powered torch. The blue plastic campers item had become a favorite among the crowds, as it always lead to the same thing, fire. Waving it in the air, the woman brought it over her head, where it burst into blue flames at the bulb end. While the crowd applauded, she gestured to her husband with the burning torch.

He flicked his wrist to reveal several giant playing cards. When he tossed them into the air, creating a paper arch, Molly Leibbrand threw the torch, which burned a hole through the gigantic cards in the shape of the torch. At this point, the burning cards floated in the air until they burned out, whereas the torch fell to the ground and immediately extinguished itself.

The card's ashes fell to the ground in front of Loni's parents while the audience cheered. Like usual, the curtains started to close, her parents waved to their fans, and then all the sudden Loni was sitting in the back seat of her parent's private limousine.

"Did you like it, sweetie?" Her mum asked. The sequins on her outfit were starting to get blinding, and her father was smiling at her just like her mother.

"Yeah, it was great. You guys were AWESOME out there!" She chirped, as she had done the last couple of shows.

"Glad you like it. Did you see the spins?"

Truth be told, Loni had not seen the spins. "Yes. It's a cool move."

The limo crawled through the trafficked parking lot and onto the highway. Lani pushed a strand of frizzy dirty- blonde hair back into her ponytail with a finger. And now for dad to say..

"Can you get the fanmail when we get home?" Her dad asked.

"Yes, Dad." Loni said, amused. He turned back around to his novel.

"Great!" Her mom suddenly yelled. The father and daughter looked up to see a large bird poop splatter on the right side of the limo. Furious, Molly silently put out her rage driving. Pulling off an exit, her mom soon found a local carwash with a small hosing system.

"This might take a while. Do you need anything?" Molly asked Gered.

"Just another torch and a lighter, maybe some lighter fluid as well," Her father mused.

"Gered, I was asking our daughter. You can get what you need yourself."

"Oh." Loni's father pouted. "But I need that stuff. And our daughter here needs to get home to get the mail. The post office closes soon."

"Dad, I can walk. The house is only a little ways up the hill anyways. Besides, I'm eleven now, I can handle myself on the road for fifteen minutes." She said cheerfully. Sure, I'll go get the mail. I think Anika sent me another letter anyways.

"Are you sure, honey?" Her mom asked, worried. Her face scrunched up in disgust as another car pulled into the wash, full of mud.

"I better get the car in line. Bye, Lo." She held out her thumb.

"Bye, mum." Loni mumbled, taking her mom's thumb. It came off, but of course that was a rubber thumb. To be expected of the Leibbrand Magician, Molly Leibbrand.

Loni set off down the street with only two things on her - her wallet and the rubber thumb. As she walked down the crumbling sidewalk, overgrown with weeds, she noticed a boy about her age, sitting under a roadsign that read, " WASHIESPLASH CARWASH - 1 MILE." He had a peculiar look about him, in a suit and tie type of thing and a cloak. It didn't look very good for a sunny August day in Scottland. Her family had moved their after they inherited her grandfather's magic items when he had passed away.  The boy had brown hair and a freckled face.

"Hey." He called as she walked past. "Have I seen you before?"

"I don't know." Loni said, flustered. Most people never noticed her, in the shadow of her parents.

"Don't your parents do Mu- um.. magic?" The boy inquired.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"I.. I was just wondering if you could get me something signed. I'm a huge fan of their work."

Loni looked down at the rubber thumb she was fingering. As she assumed, her mum had signed the inside of it in ink pen.

"Here," she said, dumping into the boy's hand with a small smile. "You look a bit like a magician too."

His eyes turned frantic. "What do you mean?"

"Calm down, I was just complementing you. And I don't even know your name."

"Xavier. But you can call me Zack."

"Alright. Goodbye, Zack."

"Goodbye, Loni."

I didn't tell him my name. Loni was confused. Maybe he saw my name along with my parents... no. They never display my name alongside theirs. Maybe he saw it in the news or something. She shrugged and started off again.

After a good quarter hour of walking, she reached the gates of the home. With the modest fortune they had inherited and profit they had made, the Leibbrands had managed to get a mansion of the outskirts of a small town. It was small for a mansion, but Loni still hated it. She wanted to live normally, without magic behind her, looming with the ever present threat of wearing a sequined costume for the rest of her life.

"Oh god, the mail! I entirely forgot!" She remembered. Loni practically flew down the drive and down to the mailbox. She opened the silver flap to find an overstuffed mailbox, as usual. But in the very back, two letters stood up against the back of the box. A letter surely sent by Anika, and a worn, cursive letter with fraying from bird's talons. Must have been sent by falcon, or maybe a pigeon. Probably for mum and dad from a foreign country.

Molly Leibbrand came home while Loni was wobbling back up the driveway, holding a massive stack of envelopes.

"Need a ride, dear?" She called.

"Sure!" Loni called, slowly making her way over to the car. On the way, she dropped the rather parchmenty- papered letter. It floated for a second before promptly landing in a muddy puddle.

"Argh. Blasted fans and their excessive amounts of fan mail." She mumbled and picked up the letter.

It was completely dry. Strange. Loni thought to herself. Must be in waterproof ink on waterproof paper. Mum and Dad use that for signatures sometimes.

Finally making it to the car, she promptly dropped all the mail in the back seat. Her mother pulled up on the pavement in front of the gate. With the push of a button, the gate opened, and the mother and daughter steady rode along the path.

"We're here, dear. Your father had to pick up some things at the store, so he should be home in a little while. Did we get any interesting Mail?"

"Lots of fanmail. I got a letter from Anika. And this." Loni said, waving the worn letter in her hand.

"Wonderful! I'll let you open that one. Could be anything." Her mum clapped her hands together excitedly.

The two got out of the car, now sparkling clean, and walked into the home. The mansion was a three storied, modern styled home. It had the white kitchen, dark floors, and light walls.. Loni didn't pay much attention to what was done to most of the home. She mainly focused on her room, a medium sized, green walled, oak wood floored bedroom. Loni absolutely adored the color green. Her mum joked all the time that she would go "green in the face."

In the kitchen, Molly picked up an apple and tossed it across the room to Loni. Before it reached her, it exploded into dust.

"Mom! What have I said about exploding fruit?"

"That it's an incredibly awesome idea that I should prank you with all the time?" Her mum grinned.

"No. Why would I say that?" Loni teased.

"Anyways," her mother continued, tossing her a real green apple this time, "Do open that letter. It would be amazing for it to be fan mail from, say, New Zealand."

While biting into the apple, Loni attempted to open the weird looking letter with no caution at all, ripping away shards of the paper.

"Give me that!" Molly said as she snatched it up and more carefully opened it.

"Oh, my."

"Oh, my what?" Loni asked, trying to look over her mum's shoulder to see the letter.

"I knew you were destined to do good things, darling, but I never thought..."

"Honey, I'm home!" Her father practically flew into the kitchen with some plastic bags of stuff.

"Hurry! The liquid nitrogen needs to go into the fridge!" He said frantically.

"Not now, dear. Our daughter- the Leibbrand Magician's daughter - has been accepted into a magic school!"

Her father dropped the bags. His face lit up, and he joined his wife in reading the letter.

"Loni, you are very lucky!" Her mom pressed her.

"Uh huh." She said as she ate the apple.

"You've been accepted into a school that we didn't even apply for you to go to!" Her mum tried again.

"Loni, you have been accepted in Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" Her dad interrupted.

"Even the name sounds stupid." Loni mumbled.