Home?

 This story takes place before the events of Incantus Academy, book one.

8-year-old Alice Wilson looked up at her new house. I wish that we didn’t have to move away, Alice thinks to herself, missing her best friend from her old town. Her father, Mark, and brother, Peter, were in front of her. They didn’t have to unpack anything, since the moving service that Mark employed did that for them. Mark turned around and said, “Kids, welcome to your new home!” The house was two stories with three bedrooms, a study, a playroom, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room. Peter was happy with the new home, but Alice missed their old home.

The first night in the new house, Alice couldn’t sleep. Her new room looked almost identical to the one in their old house, but to her, it wasn’t the same. In the morning, Alice was still upset. When her dad asked what was wrong, all she said was, “I want to go home.” Then he said, “But you are home.” Afterward, she went to her room and slammed the door. When Mark tried to talk to her, she just told him to go away.

Later that day, Alice heard someone knock on her door, “Go away!” She said, burying her face in a pillow. Peter quietly opened the door, and walk over to Alice’s bed, and sat down. “Alice, I know that you’re upset about us moving, but change is a good thing.” “No, it’s not,” Alice says, her face still in a pillow. Peter chuckles and says, “If change is bad, then should everyone stay the same way they were from birth?” Alice sat up, “Peter, you know that’s not what I meant.” “That’s what it sounded like,” Peter replies, “but in all seriousness, change like this is good.” “HOW IS LEAVING YOUR ENTIRE CHILDHOOD BEHIND AND GOING TO A PLACE THAT YOU’VE NEVER BEEN BEFORE A GOOD THING!” Alice yells, tears falling off of her face. “YOU’VE LEFT HOME BEFORE AND LIVED SOMEWHERE ELSE, YOU DON’T KNOW HOW I FEEL! YOU WILLINGLY LEFT HOME, I DIDN’T!” Peter was taken aback by Alice’s outburst. “Change is scary,” Peter starts before Alice yells, “I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO SAY. I know exactly how you feel, it was the way I felt when I left home for the first time. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR YOU SAY YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL WHEN YOU DON’T!” “Well, I do know how you feel, I’ve had to leave everything I knew before as well,” Peter says calmly. Alice was confused, so Peter continued,

“When I was about your age, we lived in a different town than the one you grew up in. It was shortly after I turned 8 that Dad got a job as a researcher in the town we used to live in. After that, we moved into the house that we lived in before now. Trust me, I felt just like you did, I yelled at Dad quite a bit on the day we moved in, but then Mom talked to me. ‘Peter,’ she said, ‘there’s always going to be a time where things change, but you can’t get upset about it.’ I was confused, so I asked, ‘Why can’t I, I didn’t have a choice in whether we moved or not.’ She just smiled and said, ‘We don’t always have control of what happens in our life, so just be happy where you are.’ I still keep those words to this day. So, are you going to take the advice Mom gave me?” Alice wiped the remains tears off of her face and said, “Yeah!” Peter smiled, put his arm around her, and said, “Always remember that change can always be good if you let it be good.”