Alice Creekson's Story

"Alice! Your shift is over, but can you run this shipment over to the Crabapple couple's bookstore?" My father called to me from the cash register. After putting down the broom, I walked over quickly and took the bag of old books from his hand, and nodded.

"Yes Father." I said and was almost out the door, when he added something that made me turn back around.

"Make sure to get some books to read from the store, and try to be more social. Not just with ghosts, either." I was shocked, but nodded again and was out the door in my red dress and a black ribbon in my hair.

As I walked at a fast pace to the store in about 5 minutes, I thought about the events that brought me here, but soon I walked inside and gave the package to the elderly couple consisting of a dragon and a zorigami. "Here you go." I said quietly, and since they already paid for the package before I had delivered it, I began looking around at the old books.

Willow

The smell of something burning hit her nose like a ton of bricks, making her sit up abruptly in bed.

"Oh crap, Granny's trying to cook again!" she leapt from the bed wearing only a large t-shirt and a pair pink flowered boxer shorts.

She swiftly slid down the stairs banister, "Granny!" she made a dash into the doorway of the kitchen.

Maury, Granny's tiger was laying under the kitchen table like any old house cat would, Granny turned around with a skillet in her hand and big grin on her face.

"Oh good morning Willow would you like some breakfast?" the skillet in her hand had smoke wafting from the now burnt beyond recognition food.

Willow rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Granny... what are you doing?" she sighed in exasperation.

"Oh well.. I tried to cook up some pineapple." Granny looked sadly at the burnt mass in her pan.

"Graaaannny you can't fry up pineapple like bacon and once it gets to the point where you set off the smoke detector it's pretty much inedible.... Wait what else did you put in there?", there was a strong smell coming from the burnt food that made Willow's eye well up.

Granny's eyes thinned into slits as smiled really big, "Oh you noticed, I decided to throw some Brussels sprouts in there for extra vitamins."

Willow swallowed at the thought of eating such a combination, honestly she didn't know sometimes how she had been able to survive to the age of sixteen with her grandmother's idea's for food concoctions. Perhaps she just learned at a young age she was better off eating a bowl of cold cereal. After a bit of clean up and the disposal of another new skillet. Willow got dressed and and decided to go out and spend some time down town.

It was Spring Break after all so why not enjoy it, after Granny was settled on the couch with some of the cats, Maury and her knitting, Willow headed out the door. It was a pretty decent spring day but still a little on the chilly side it made Willow appreciate the fact that she typically wore a hoody. It took her a little while to walk since Granny's cottage was really close to the forest.

"Maaan I can't wait till Granny gets the Vac's tank refilled." when she stepped into down town she knew where her first stop would be.

She walked into "El Ray's Tacoria" walking up to the counter she gave Ray a big smile. Ray was Minotaur he wore a loin cloth, with a polo shirt that clearly was too small for him. Accompanied by a red apron and a red trucker hat that was emblazoned with a cartoon taco in a wrestling mask.

"Hey Ray can I get a churro to go, Granny tried to feed me burnt pineapple and brussels sprouts?" Willow started to dig through her pockets.

A breath a steam escaped around the ring Ray's nose, his hooves clacked on the floor behind the counter as he headed back to get Willow's order. As she stood there waiting on her order she looked around at the decor of the restaurant. There was an ironic black velvet painting of a matador that hung on one of the walls that always made Willow internally giggle a bit. Her thoughts were brought back to food when she heard the clack of hooves once again.

"Here's your order Willow. I'm pretty glad your grandmother stinks at cooking. You're one of my best customers.", said Ray in a thick Spanish accent.

He handed her the churro that was wrapped neatly in wax paper, "I'm just glad I got in here today before the lunch rush, anyway thanks again I'll see you later Ray." she took a bite as she headed out the door, her next stop was the book store to see if they had anything new in the spell book section. By the time she made it to the door of the store her churro was no more, pushing open the door there was a ring of bells as the door opened.

"Hey Mr. and Mrs. Crabapple." she said with a smile and half hearted wave at the old couple. Mrs. Crabapple smiled at Willow, as her clock husband glared. Willow knew that Mr. Crabapple was always a little on the cranky side, and she couldn't help but think he might be a little less moody if someone set his time back a few hundred years.

Willow started going up and down isles of old dusty books, turning a corner she noticed a girl from school. It almost made her stop in her tracks, but she managed to not appear too awkward and detoured to another isle. However that wasn't much better, cause she ran right into a guy that was looking through books as well.

"Oh crap I'm sorry." she said then she realized who it was. "Oh no it's Cassius...", she said in her head.

I began to bring the books to the register at the bookstore, and got out my money. There was some purple-skinned guy, who seemed to be a demon judging from the horns on his head, plus two other teens I saw around. I didn't pay much attention to them as I paid for my books and walked out the door after thanking Mrs. Crabapple.

I began to walk back to the antique shop owned by my father, and walked inside the store with my books. Father asked me if I had been social, and I nodded. He didn't seem to believe me, but Father didn't ask questions. My shift began after I put my books in my room above the living room turned into a store specializing in witchcraft and antiques, and I began to work again. Making sure to sweep the floor and dust every nook and cranny when there wasn't a customer at the cash register. However, my shift ended and I was sent upstairs to work on my reading about necromancy after I got some food from the kitchen.

I munched on my bread with butter and sipped my grape juice as I read a book called "How to Have Zombies do Household Chores", and took some notes on it. Well, I also had some school studying to do, but I could do that later. Right then, I could just study my path in magic I wanted to take.