The Elven Threat

"UGH!" Mary moaned as she closed the locker behind her. "I've got so much homework. It's unfair."     "Buck up, Mary," Paul teased. "We've got the same homework that you do."     Mary rolled her eyes. "They overwork us. That's gotta be a thing."     "Maybe, but homework is good, it helps us learn." Paul shrugged his backpack farther on to his shoulder.     Mary turned and looked straight at him, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You're the only one who thinks that, bud."     Paul rolled his eyes as Mary resumed her walk down the hallway. "I'll help you with it," he offered.     Mary humphed, "I just don't want to do it."     "Honest to a fault," Paul noted. "Hey, why don't we stop at the park on our way home?"     "Sure," Mary nodded. "Let's see if we can catch the g**g before we go."     They found their friends hanging out in front of the school. "Wendy, Bethany, Matt, how's it going?" Mary called out with a wave.     "Hey, May Bae!" Bethany shouted back jumping off her perch on the cement railing to greet her friend.     "Hey, Beth," they embrace. "School was rough, right?"     Bethany nodded slowly, "Always, girl, always."     "See, Paul, she gets it!" Mary said, pointedly.     Paul just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm gonna go to college and all y'all just gonna rot on the streets. So sad."     "Hey, now!" Mary shot back. "If I had something in my hand, I'd throw it at you."     "Yeah, yeah," Paul waved it off, he turned to Wendy, "How's it going?" he asked her.     "Pretty good, you know, kinda boring, but that's just life."     "Well, I hope it's going well," he said, putting his arm around her shoulders.     "Well," she said thoughtfully, "It just got a little better."     "Come on guys, get a room," Mary teased. The couple just laughed and stayed as they were. Mary turned about, "Matt? You've been awfully quiet, anything on your mind?"     Matt looked up, "What? Oh." He straightened up and came over to the group, "Just something my mom said. Something about elves... I dunno. It's kind of confusing, and I don't get it."     "Don't get what?" The whole group turned to look at him.     "Well, I'm not sure if you guys would understand if I tried to explain it..." Matt trailed off.     "Hey, we're headed to the park right now. You wanna come?" Paul asked everyone. "You can talk on the way," he told Matt.     "Ah... sure." Matt agreed.     "Yay!" Beth shouted. She wrapped her arms around Mary's shoulders and grabbed Matt's hand, then started dragging them off to the park with Paul and Wendy walking hand in hand behind them.     "So, what did your mom say?" Mary asked.     "Hmm," Matt fell into a silence and he rocked his head back and forth the way he does when he's thinking hard. "She talked about... magic." He struggled to say it.     "What about magic?"     "That, well, that I have it. And that I'm really an elf from another dimension..."     That gained a lot of raised eyebrows from the group.     "You're just trying to pull our leg, aren't you?" Bethany asked.     "That's what I thought when my mom told me, but she was being dead serious! That's why I can't stop thinking about it!" Matt exclaimed.     "Why would she say something like that?" Mary wondered aloud. She knew Matt's mom very well, and she couldn't imagine her making up a story like that.     "Well, maybe it's because I can do this." He paused right there in the middle of the side walk with his hand outstretched. He scrunched his eyebrows as he concentrated on his palm. He took several deep breaths and seemed to be straining, when to the surprise of everyone, a tiny sliver of light flickered in the middle of his hand. It grew and grew to the size of a small baseball until Matt let out his breath, and it faded.     "What was that?" Paul asked coming up from behind.     Mary and Beth stood mouths slightly ajar looking at Matt's hand. Matt felt the pressure of everyone's gaze and spoke. "I guess it was magic."     "You gotta be messing with us, right?"     "Dude, you didn't see it like we did," Mary told him. "That was no magic trick." She looked at Matt's eyes. "When did you know you could do this?" she asked.     "I woke up this morning and felt a little off, like there was some sort of power inside of me, and when I reached for it, this happened," He gestured to his hand. "It takes a ton of concentration, though."     "Cool!" Mary reached for his hand. She studied it intensely for a moment before Matt pulled his hand away.     "Um, I just remembered I had to go do something. For my mom." His face was flushing as he looked at Mary. "Uh.. got to go."     He turned and started heading for his house.     Bethany nudged Mary. "He likes you!" she whispered in her ear.     "What?" Mary asked, then remembered how without thinking she had grabbed his hand. "Oh!" She flushed red, too.     The other three friends shared a look before Mary suddenly announced, "I'm walking him home."     A bit stunned, Beth, Paul, and Wendy didn't say anything as she raced after Matt.     She pulled up along side him. "Hey, Matt."     Matt jumped, "Woah, you startled me."     "Sorry." Mary apologized.     "It's alright." Matt said. "So, what's up?" he asked.     "I wanted to know why you suddenly ran off." Mary stated.     "Oh, well," he looked away sheepishly, "I didn't know how you guys would take my whole story, I-I guess I panicked..."     "It is really cool, but we don't have to talk about it if you don't want."     "Thanks," he breathed a sigh.     "Haha, the others thought you ran away because I held your hand!" She laughed nervously.     He didn't respond. When Mary looked at him, his face was red.     "Oh..." she said, feeling the awkward. "Anywho, no worries. Is it okay if I walk with you? I kinda wanted to walk with you, but you just started leaving. So is it okay?"     "S-sure," Matt stuttered, then recomposed himself, "your house is basically right next to mine. So it's good."     "Cool," she smiled and settled into step beside him.     The tensions eased and soon they were walking and talking and laughing the whole way.