My thirteenth birthday is the day the world went to hell.  I don’t know why I’m remembering this now.  It’s probably the worst time I could possibly be remembering this.  I peered out my cell window, the clouds shifting around the ship, the wind whistling.  It is really my room, but over time, it has become more and more like a cell.  The ground below is dry as can be with no sign of life anywhere.  I pictured my mother, my father, and my brothers sitting around a cake.  Why am I remembering them now?  They were singing happy birthday.  Stop!  Then I heard shouting.  STOP!  I looked outside and saw bright lights everywhere. No!  My thirteenth birthday was the day magic came to life.

~~~

“I want everyone working on their multiples of 16 worksheets.”  Miss Jones, my math teacher, said to the class.  There was only one issue, I didn’t have the worksheets.  I raised my hand and Miss Jones walked over to see me, worksheet in hand.

“I know you probably lost your worksheet, here’s a new one.  You really need to be more responsible, Jamie!  This is the third one I’m giving you!” After giving me her little lecture, she smiled at me, “You’re a smart kid, smarter than most.  You just need to apply yourself,” she said softly, it was a kind gesture, but I always knew I was different.

Most of the kids don’t want to play with me, and I don’t want to play with them.  My head is generally up in the clouds and I never pay attention during class.  Don’t ask me how I’ve passed every class all the way up to the eighth grade, I don’t even know myself.  Girls never interested me as much as they did for the other boys.  I like to spend my time outside in the woods, usually a book in hand.

“Let’s go down for lunch, Jamie!” Scott shouted as he pounded his hands on my desk.  There I go again, head in the clouds.  Scott has been my one and only friend since I was born.  We met when we were five and he moved in next door.  He saw me walking out to the woods and asked if he could join, I said no, he came anyway, and the story goes on for five years after that.

“I’m not that hungry, I’ll go down later,” I told him, even though I was actually starving.

“Okay, I’ll see you later, I guess.”  He smiled at me as he walked out of the room.

Next thing I knew, it was the end of the day and I was walking home next to Scott.  “And then the spaceship went around the planet and blasted it’s guns.  It was like pew pew and then pow pow.  Do you want to watch it with me?”  Scott was blabbing about some space movie he had watched.

“Um, sure, sounds cool,” I replied, even though I really didn’t want to.  “We’re having a family dinner tonight, but maybe over the weekend.”

“Ok, see you tomorrow!”

I looked up and realized that we were in front of my house.  “Oh, yeah, see you tomorrow!”  I yelled back to Scott as I walked up my porch steps.  The lights in the house were off, which was odd since both my parents worked from home.  Maybe they went to the grocery store.  

I went to set my bag down in the kitchen when the lights flicked on and everyone jumped out.  “Surprise!”  I screamed.

“Calm down Jamie,” my mom said.

“What’s this all for?”

“Did you really think we would forget your birthday?” My older brother, Jaxon, asked.  I totally forgot it was my birthday.  I forgot my own birthday.  Who does that?  My whole family was seated around our large table, my favorite foods filled the table and a cake on the end.  We have a very large table, for a very large family, which means there was a lot of food.  I have eight older brothers, four sets of twins, all one year apart.  I was born two years after the last set, kind of an oops baby.

“Of course not!  Thanks guys,” I told them all, acting like I didn’t forget myself.  A little bit later, all of the food was eaten and it was time to move onto the cake.  

“Happy Birthday to you.  Happy Birthday to you,” My family sang, as my mom lit the candles on the cake. “Happy Birthday dear Jamie.  Happy Birth-”  Then they were cut off by the wave and the shouting.  I’m not sure if they felt it, too, but it was like a surge going through me.  There was shouting outside, sparks and colors flying everywhere.  That’s when I started to glow, sparks of flame shooting out of my hands.  All I could hear were my family's screams.  The next thing I knew, men in white uniforms and masks came into our house, grabbed me by the arm, and dragged me into the back of a truck.