It was the afternoon of the 12th of August, and Jessica and Raphael's house was buzzing with children under the age of ten. The children and their parents (mostly mothers) were at the house to celebrate Raphael's sixth birthday. Jessica and Raphael usually celebrated her son's birthday with just them, some of Raphael and Jessie's friends, and a few neighbors. But the week before his birthday, he had asked his mother to celebrate his birthday, he wanted all his classmates and friends and all his mother's friends and colleagues at work to celebrate this special birthday with him. Initially, Raphael thought his mother would disagree as she was the most over protective mother he'd ever seen, she barely even let him ride his bicycle around their neighborhood, but then again it took him a week to convince his mother to get the bike for him, and it took another week for him to convince her to teach him. She was the most annoying mother IN THE WORLD, but as young as was, he knew his mother loved and cared for him and she was just trying to protect him from the cruel, cruel world, like any single mother would. See, Ralph's father had died the week after he was born, that much he knew, but that WAS the only thing he knew about his father's death, but at least he was happy to know that his father had been with his mother throughout her pregnancy and his delivery and even got to know him for a week.
Anyways, today Raphael was celebrating his sixth birthday. His mother got a lot of gifts for him consisting of toys, books, magic stuff (as he was very fond of magic(cards, costumes, and a wand)) and a new bicycle, she said she bought it because the old one was, well, old. So she got him a new (and customized) bicycle painted in his favourite color: green. She even painted his room green as a birthday present for him. He thought she was pampering him, and he liked it, a lot.
While the celebration was in full swing, Jessica played a lot of songs for him, mostly birthday songs and songs that quantify her love for him. She played these songs to tell him that she would do anything for him, she would protect him forever and love him unconditionally.
After a song ended, she went over to him and hugged him tightly and said "Happy birthday my little wizard" as she fondly called him, "Thank you so very much, mom."
"What nonsense. Raphael you don't need to thank me for anything, you, my little wizard, deserve all this. You've not only made my happy, but proud of you as well, your grades are the best in your class. Your grades are so good that your principal called me the other day to tell me that he would like to take you up a few grades. Of course I said " no" but that was for your own good, because there are some things by taking life step-by-step that you won't learn if you skip some parts just because you heard about it or because you have passed that stage. Not only your grades, but your semi-good behaviour has awarded you this wonderful party, although, no one has ever come to complain that you're snobby or pompous or stubborn aside from the silly little pranks you play. And also I gave you this party because I really, really, REALLY wanted to spoil you my little wizard." Raphael was smiling happily as his mother said that.
"Come on, let's go and devour that cake" Jess said.
"Yay, alright"
"Alright everyone, let's have some cake" Jessica said at the top of her voice so everyone in their spacious backyard, where the party was being hosted could hear her.
After the cake had been cut, and the first bite was taken by the birthday boy, he went up to his toilet to excrete all the punch and Apple juice he drank. Apparently, he'd had a cup too many.
While he was washing his hands, he felt a presence behind him, the presence wasn't alarming or dangerous, on the contrary, it felt powerful and domineering but familiar and safe, but when he turned around he saw no one, absolutely no one. He thought of telling his mother, but he didn't want to get her worried and she might not even believe him, well, he wouldn't believe himself.
***********************************************. Ten years later, Raphael is sixteen years old and he was walking through the halls of his high school with his friends.
"So Ralph, what are you doing for your birthday today?" Gabriel one of his two friends asked.
"You know the usual: you guys come over, mom gets me a cake and a bottle of non-alcholic wine, some new video games, and by that I mean probably two, and any of my favourite dishes, well actually she can cook anything, as long as it's spicy. "Ralph replied.
"Ugh, your mom is so boring, she hasn't done anything spectacular since your sixth, after that she's been doing the same thing every year." Thomas, his other friend said.
"Yeah, I know, but really, I don't care, as long as she loves me and she doesn't get too involved in her job and forgets my birthday" Raphael said to both of them.
"Oh you're such a spoiled mama's boy, that's why you're gonna remain a virgin a long time." Gabriel said.
"And never gonna have a girlfriend." Thomas added
"Or go to a party without having to sneak out." Raphael finished, he paused for a while before he sighed.
"I know, I'm never gonna be able to do all those things and it is so annoying that she won't let me do any of these things, BUT, she loves me, so I'm good to go with her." Raphael smiled as he said that.
His friends just looked at him and laughed loud and hard, then Thomas stopped and frowned and said
"Speaking of parties, I had too much to drink last night at Jaime's party, which by the way was lit, and paid for it with a banging headache this morning, it's a good thing you didn't miss it and I need to use the loo."
"Oh, I gotta go too." Gabriel said after Thomas ran into the boy's toilet he just followed him in. After a while, Raphael joined them too. But when he went in, his friends were washing their hands.
He went into the nearest empty urinal and relived himself. When he turned around, he was so surprised to see his friends passed out on the ground, he rushed over to them, "Tom, Gabe, guys, what happened?" Just then, as he was shaking them, he felt an aura behind him, it wasn't hostile, but it didn't feel safe either. Not like the one from his sixth birthday.
"Your friends are gonna be just fine." The voice belonged to a woman. Raphael turned around sharply looking like he was going to kill her.
"What did you do to my friends?"
"Don't worry, they're fine, I just put them to sleep." The woman said
"My name is Amber Donnovan, and we need to talk."
"I won't listen to anything you have to say, not until you wake them up."
"What I need to tell you can't be heard by human ears, only your mother needs to hear this"
"WHY WON'T YOU JUST TELL HER YOURSELF." Raphael shouted at her in anger.
"Because your crazy, overprotective mother will try to kill me if she sees me with you." Amber said, glaring at him, her eyes even glowed green. This startled him. Yes, her eyes were green, but when she spoke to him just now, they glowed, the way glow-in-the-dark sticks glowed. That wasn't normal. Amber saw Raphael's reaction, then she closed her eyes and breathed in and out calming herself.
"Anyways tell your mother I've found you and since I found you, you both need to get out of town, tell her the spell is fading and I can see your power and it's like a beacon leading me here, though it's faint and only powerful creatures can see it."
"Wait, wait, wait, spell? My Power? Powerful creatures? What do you mean by all that?"
"Your crazy mom never told you?"
"Tell me what?"
"That's a 'no' then, well I might as well just tell you then." She paused for effect and started walking toward him slowly.
"You, my dear boy, are a witch."
"WHAT, no, you're lying, if I were a witch I'd know, also I'm a boy, boys can't be witches only wizards and most importantly my mom would tell me."
"No, your mom wouldn't, because she knows that if she tells you, you're going to unknowingly activate your power and you would get killed because you are very powerful, and she can't protect you because she's a human and doesn't have some mystical creature on her speed dial to call at a time like that. And secondly, both male and female can be witches or warlocks, not wizards, warlocks. The only difference is that witches practice white magic while warlocks practice dark magic."
"But still....."
"'But still' nothing, well, if you don't believe me you can always ask her."
After saying that, she disappeared and his friends woke up.
"Oh, what happened?" Thomas woke up groaning. Raphael didn't answer them, he just walked out of the bathroom, leaving them on the bathroom floor.
"Whoa, dude wait, hold up" Gabriel said running after him. When they walked out of the toilet, they saw everyone trying to stand up from the floor.
'The witch apparently did this to everyone in the school' Raphael thought, 'well, I think she's a witch, I didn't get a chance to ask her.'
"Dude, wait up, what's up with the 'soldier on battlefield' look on your face?" Gabriel asked but Raphael didn't answer him.
"Ralph what's up? What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing." he said shortly with a face of steel. His friends looked at him and scoffed.
"Well, that's convincing." Thomas murmured sarcastically.
Thankfully, it was only one period left before closing, so Raphael could confront his mother soon.