A Magical Bond | 2

No matter how hard she wished against it, Cassie's parents ended up divorcing not long after that fateful mother-daughter trip to San Myshuno. Her dad moved out, never even asking if she would prefer to go with him. Of course, even if he had, her mom never would have allowed it. As Cassie grew up, Malia became more and more controlling. She had good intentions. She wanted to do everything in her power to eliminate distractions and help her daughter succeed academically. College was Cassie's ticket out of Sulani, Malia said, so that she'd have a fighting chance of really making something of herself. But Cassie didn't even know if she wanted that. Why was her mom so determined to make her leave? By high school, she'd had enough of Malia attempting to micromanage every single aspect of her life.

Most mornings, when she left on her bike to head off to school, as soon as she knew she had disappeared from her mom's line of vision, she was just as likely to veer in the opposite direction. She knew her mom would catch wind of her delinquency eventually, but in the moment she never cared. She soon grew addicted to the rush of finally making her own decisions, no matter how small, instead of following the rigid path her mom had set out for her life to a T.

At first, her quiet acts of rebellion were innocent enough. Whenever she skipped school, she usually just ended up at the local Internet cafe, sipping on caffe lattes and re-reading her favorite Henry Puffer chapters. Sione was right: the books never got old. She only wished he was there with her to deconstruct every last detail. They kept up sporadic email correspondence, but lately the messages had been fewer and farther between.

Soon enough, her clandestine Internet cafe visits were no longer enough. She started sneaking out at night, too, so she could dance with her friends till dawn at crowded and sweaty beach raves. At the first sign of daylight, she would creep back into the house, crumpled and exhausted, and roll into bed to pretend as though she'd never left. She wasn't even sure how much she enjoyed the parties themselves. It was simply the sweet, sweet taste of freedom she craved.

In San Myshuno, Sione was becoming the king of extracurriculars. After all, if he really wanted to be accepted into one of the top universities for engineering, he couldn't count on his immaculate GPA alone to get him in. The competition was fierce, so he needed to stand out. Ever since elementary school, he'd been stacking up awards for his various robotic inventions.

He was also one of the most active members of his Scout troop, having earned enough badges to work his way up to the coveted Llamacorn title, which was the highest possible ranking. The admissions officers would surely be impressed by his well-rounded command of practical skills and long list of volunteer activities!

His top choice for college was Foxbury Institute, which was home to some of the most selective science and technical programs that currently existed and counted among its graduates the founders of many of the world's most promising tech startups. On weekends, he met up with the other members of his school's robotics club to make use of the campus's state-of-the-art facilities. In the near future, he hoped, he would be navigating Foxbury's illustrious halls every day.

Somehow, even with his jam-packed academic schedule, he still managed to help out around the apartment whenever possible, applying his increasing technical know-how to whatever plumbing or electrical issues just happened to crop up. His parents were overjoyed to be saving so much money they otherwise would have wasted on calling a repairman. Sure, his various activities left hardly any time to devote to his Henry Puffer addiction, but that was kids' stuff anyway. He was getting too old for all that.

While Sione was the picture of success, Cassie, of course, eventually got caught skipping school and sneaking out a few too many times for her mother's comfort. Running low on options, Malia asked Javier to pull some strings at work and get Cassie an after-school job as a lifeguard. Maybe it would teach her some responsibility - or, at the very least, maybe Javier could talk some sense into her where Malia had failed. Cassie had always seemed to take to him better anyway.

But Javier had always been a bit too lax as a parent for Malia's taste, and not much had changed about him after they separated. He was a free-spirited beach bum who didn't put much stock into setting rules or establishing boundaries. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for him to treat his daughter to a cold, foam-topped beer she was technically too young to be drinking at the end of her shift as a congratulatory treat for a job well done.

Meanwhile, Cassie's magical dreams persisted. She found herself returning time and time again to the same mysterious portal. By now, she had the landscape surrounding it memorized, from the lavender blossoms on the trees to the bushes bearing butter-colored flowers to the clusters of giant spotted mushrooms. The portal itself was shrouded in a soupy layer of fog. No matter what, her dream legs were compelled over and over to keep running toward it, even as it never let her through.

Until the one night that it finally did. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, she was on the other side. Had she done something differently this time? She didn't think so, but the scenery around her had entirely changed. She was in another world. Behind her stood a sprawling manor that seemed to beckon her inside. She slowly ascended its stairway, expecting to be unceremoniously dropped back into her waking life with every step.

But she made it through the manor's entrance and then followed a faint violet-hued light seeping through the cracks of a partially closed door into one of its many chambers. What she had walked into was some sort of magical workshop, with glowing runes on the floor and a massive cauldron at its center. A woman faced away from her, wielding a wand and murmuring words in a language Cassie didn't recognize. Just as Cassie opened her mouth to speak, she woke up back in her own bed. She never got a chance to see the woman's face.

It was real! It had to be. She could feel it in her soul that the place in her dreams truly existed, like a real-life Harnocks, and she was meant to find it! There was no other explanation, and she couldn't waste any time. The next night, she "borrowed" the first boat she laid eyes on and set out in the opposite direction of home. Somehow, she would make it all the way to San Myshuno, where she would pick up Sione, who would surely be blown away by her revelation, and together they would... But, soon, reality hit her like a slap in the face: she had no map, no compass, no food, no plan. How could she be so stupid? She hadn't thought this through at all! For the rest of the night, she drifted listlessly in the open ocean, all of her hopes deflated, until she finally turned back toward Ohan'ali Town.

Of course, her mom was waiting for her, face twisted into an expression of anger, worry, and disappointment all at once, as she guiltily climbed up onto their dock. Cassie laughed awkwardly, crossing her fingers behind her back that she wasn't about to be grounded for life or, worse, sent away to some military reform school for juvenile delinquents. "Mom, this isn't what it looks like at all. I can explain-"

"Get inside, young lady," Malia interrupted. "Now." To Cassie's surprise, she appeared to be on the verge of tears. As Cassie sulked past her into the house, her mom suddenly pulled her into a fierce embrace. "You scared the life out of me," she whispered. "I thought I'd lost you forever."

After that, Malia's rage seemed to mellow out into motherly compassion. She fed Cassie breakfast and put her to bed without asking a single question. Cassie slept until mid-afternoon, when she tip-toed reticently downstairs to find her mother in the middle of an ominous-sounding phone call.

"This island isn't good for her," she was saying. "It's too easy for her to find trouble because there's nothing else to motivate her. She needs a change of scenery. She needs stimulation. I was hoping to hold out until she was old enough to leave on her own, but I don't think I can keep her safe anymore."

Cassie's stomach started turning somersaults. Her mom was really going through with it. She was going to send her away! But where on earth to?

The call from Malia caught Noelani and Nani off-guard. She had practically begged them to take in her daughter. Naturally, they couldn't say no, but they both thought she was being a touch dramatic. Sure, Cassie had skipped school here and there and been caught red-handed sneaking out after curfew more than a few times, but wasn't that just typical teenage stuff? They'd gotten lucky with Sione, but Cassie's behavior hardly seemed abnormal compared to any other kid her age. Still, Malia acted as though she were in imminent danger if she remained in Sulani a second longer. Every time they asked her to elaborate, she would tell them firmly but vaguely, "I have my reasons."

"Well, what do you think about staying with us for a while?" Noelani asked Cassie, who, at the moment, mostly just felt relieved to be in their apartment and not a cell in juvie. "I'm afraid we don't have much space, but we'd be happy to have you if you don't mind the close quarters."

"What about school?" she asked dubiously.

"Oh, honey, the schools are wonderful here," Malia piped in. "You'll learn more than you ever did on that silly backwards island of ours."

"I think what your mom means to say," Nani added delicately, confused by Malia's disparagement of her lifelong home, "is that you'll have a lot more options here. There are more classes to choose from and a lot of extracurricular clubs you can join, if you're interested. If you're finding yourself bored in Sulani, experiencing somewhere new might help you discover where your passion lies."

Or it might bring me closer to tracking down that portal, Cassie was thinking. "I'm in," she proclaimed.

As soon as the matter was settled, Cassie burst into Sione's bedroom to tell him the good news. He was knee-deep in his latest robotics project and barely looked up. "Now that I'm going to be living with you, we can hang out all the time! Isn't that going to be awesome?"

"Mm-hmm," he muttered distractedly.

Cassie brushed off his apparent lack of enthusiasm and soldiered on. "We should celebrate with a Puffer movie marathon, starting now! What do you say? Come on! Your parents said we can order a pizza and everything!"

"Maybe later. I'm a little busy right now, sorry."

Cassie stood frozen in place for a moment, staring down at him in disbelief. What was wrong with him? Had he undergone a personality transplant since the last time they'd met in person? The Sione she knew would never pass up an opportunity to proudly fly his Pufferhead flag.

Surely, he would come around eventually, she thought, as she unpacked her belongings in the tiny corner of the apartment that had been deemed her new bedroom. He was probably just in a bad mood. Even if it meant sleeping on a musty-smelling air mattress that had been stuffed in the back of a closet for years and having only a flimsy privacy screen to serve as a barrier between her and the living room, she was still grateful to be here. Of the many "punishments" her mother might have imposed upon her, this one was by far the most tolerable. She would thrive here. She would really try. But she was also never going to stop pursuing the magic she knew existed somewhere out there just beyond her reach.

She wasn't the only one who Sione had carelessly abandoned. Kit rubbed up against her legs, meowing plaintively. She picked the cat up and hugged her close, comforted by the low, contented purrs vibrating against her chest. "We'll be okay," she told Kit reassuringly, scratching beneath her chin. "I just know he'll start to miss us eventually. I mean, who wouldn't?  You and I are positively irresistible, aren't we?"