Chapter 1: Discovery Being a 5th grader in Virginia, “Magic” isn't really that common to witness. So me and my older sister Autumn make some out of old cottages in the woods, like turning them into cozy rooms, except one day we stumbled upon something rather peculiar. So, it was a cool day in autumn. Autumn and I decided to go find some cottages in the forest by my house, and for the first two hours, we couldn’t find anything. “Wait… Is that a cottage?” I asked. A bird flew on my head and shrugged, “Meep.” An American Woodcock. I laughed, then got back to investigating the newfound building. I peered through the windows, and saw some colorful liquids in circular bottles, a few shiny rocks, and a sheet of paper left blank. We were about to go inside when someone called for us. “Dinner time!” my mom yelled. We ran inside, and decided we would continue this tomorrow. The next day, we woke up early with frizzled hair and bags under our eyes. We shoved Saturday pancakes down our throats and hurried outside. In the doorway, my mom called, “Girls!” we both jerked back a bit. “Have you done your homework yet? You two need to complete your work.” We both groaned in annoyance. After we finished our homework through fraction struggles(seriously, why would we ever need to divide fractions in daily life), we swung open the door and ran straight to the building, and found it locked. I was just about to start freaking out but for some reason, Autumn was sure the key should be around there somewhere because the sign said “for sale”. It was bad logic, but I was desperate to open it. We checked under mats and mailboxes and grass patches. We found the key on the roof, and we climbed a nearby tree to get it. It was time to open the mystery. We stared into the magical place. There were mushrooms. Shiny glitter. An empty pot with a stirring stick. “What if this place really was a magic shop?” I asked. “Pfft! I wish. But things like these dont-” “wait.” I interrupted Autumn. I had just discovered something. “When you said ‘I wish’, things started to move.” She looked at me all weird. “You sure? I think your eyes were seeing phantoms or something. Or maybe you’re just going crazy.” “I wish…” I said, ignoring the comment. It all tingled again. “It really does, Autumn!” “Summer, I think your eyes are seeing things. Where are your glasses?” She asked. “I don't wear glasses. But it really did. You look.” I said. Autumn sighed and said, “I wish…” The bottles tingled then stopped. “Wait, what?” Autumn asked. Then something scurried around. Something small, and hard to see. “Is it a mouse?” I heard Autumn say, The creature poked its head out. “What is that?” I asked. I had never seen something like it before. It had a round, plump body with little legs and arms, and looked kind of like a cartoon frog. “What are you doing here, little missies?” the creature squeaked. It can…talk? “My name is Frogbert.” it said. “Hi, Fr-og-be-rt…” I said. “I’m Summer and this is Autumn.”
“Cool. I used to run this old thing. Shut down a long, long time ago.” “Why is your name Frogbert?” Autumn asked. “Well, my-” “What is this place?” she asked. “This-” Frogbert began again. Autumn interrupted again. “How many yea-?” Autumn began. I slapped my hand over her mouth. I glared at her, slowly lowering my hand as she mouthed Chill and motioned her hands for me to calm down. We continued looking around the shop. I saw some less old materials- maybe about three months old. I touched one of the shiny rocks. Wait. Why is this so soft? I thought. I pushed it gently. It was as squishy as a balloon. “What the…”I said. “Oh, that's a Veroxal Stone.” Frogbert said. “A ver-WHAT?” Autumn asked. “A Veroxal Stone! It is a type of rock that is made to be empty inside.” He said. “Ohhkayyy, well then what's this?” I asked, pointing at some sandy-looking stuff that twinkled. “Fairy dust!” Frogbert said. “It's our main use.” “FAIRY DUST??” Autumn exclaimed. “Pfft! Ok kid, stop the act. This place isn't real, sorry to break your fantasy.” “Okay, first of all, I'm 500.” Frogbert said. “Secondly, don't doubt this place! It's as real as can be! I wish… I wish…. Uhh… I wish I had a slice of pizza! Or a hat.” There was a poof as a slice of pizza emerged from his head. We cracked up. “If this place grants wishes… Can someone wish for a special person to come back to them?" I asked. It had been a few years since my dad left for his job in Sacramento, while we were 7 hours away by plane. “I guess it’s not impossible. But it would probably be extremely hard to grant.” Frogbert said. “Probably will take ‘bout two more of these magic shops.” “Oh…well… Is this the only one?” I asked. “Nope! There’s a few more, but I don't know if they're still in the condition for wishes anymore. I’m not sure the other keepers, Orion and Luna, are still even alive.” He said. “Wait, so they got cool names, and you got Frogbert? Huh?” I asked. I did not think that Frogbert was a mystical name.“Dinner!” I heard my mom call. “COMING!” I yelled. “Look, we better go. We're coming back tomorrow, m’kay?” I told Frogbert as we sprinted to get dinner. As I was mindlessly munching on mac’n’cheese like a robot, I thought back to the day. How would we find the 2nd and 3rd ones? How would we- “Summer?” oh. My mom was calling my name. “Oh, sorry.” “No need! But I was just asking if you wanted brownies or smores?” She said, "Definitely smores.” I replied. “Gotcha.” She said, I was going to get back to thinking about it again, but forgot what I was thinking about. My stomach was full of delicious s’mores and mac’n’cheese, but I went to sleep with a hollow body. I woke up late and rushed to school with a toothbrush in my mouth. I unpacked and huffed as I miraculously made it in. “So, uhh.. I heard Madison moved schools.” It was David, who was the quiet kid and maybe my secret crush. “What? Why?” Madison was the biggest bully at school, but the sweetest in front of teachers. “I, uh, kinda punched her. In the face.” He said, scratching his head as he awkwardly admitted to the truth. “Oh! That's new.” I said, I felt my face heat up. “Um, got to go! Bye!” I said, running down the hall. I hope he doesn’t think I'm weird. I was scared that he had seen me blushing. Luckily, I got through school without looking like a tomato. I ran to the shop with Autumn. Frogbert immediately let us in and we closed the door. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask… How?” Autumn asked. “What do you mean, ‘How’?” Frogbert asked. “Just, How.” Autumn said. “Huh?” Frogbert said. “This whole place. It’s-” Autumn sighed. “It just seems too good to be true.” “But it is!” Frogbert replied. “It’s all real.” “Is it real enough though?” Autumn doubted. “Magic was never real. Since when was it?” “Magic was always real." Frogbert said. We all were quiet. We needed it.“I’m gonna take you home today. I want to hear more.” I said, as I picked up Frogbert and put him in my bag. “Fine with me!” came a muffled voice. I took him home and set him on the table. “Okay, now you really need to stay hid-” I began. “Hon? Who are you talking to?” my mom asked. She walked over and froze. “Frogbert? Is that you?” She asked, “Emma?” Frogbert asked. “You’ve met before?” I asked. “Met before? We were best friends!” Frogbert replied. “The fresher materials… that was you?” I asked. “Fresher materials? Maybe. Not sure. I stopped going there about 20 years ago.” She said, Wait, but… “Uh… I need to go check on something for a second, can you watch him? Thanks!” I zoomed off. I ran to the shop and flung the door open. More fresh ingredients. One seems to be placed just now. I, confused, started looking around for any signs of life. I saw someone’s phone. I reached for it and saw the background just as the door slammed shut. I heard someone running. “Hey!” I called out, as I forced the door open. I ran and frantically looked around, but I found nobody. When I looked back, the phone was gone. But the phone background… was me.
