Maya's POV
I threw my textbooks into the trunk and slammed the car door so hard the whole vehicle shook.
"Maya!" Mom's voice was sharp. "Don't take your anger out on our car."
I wanted to scream. Don't take my anger out on the car? What about taking my anger out on the people who were meant to love me no matter what? But I just crossed my arms and stared out the window as Dad started the engine.
The quiet in the car was so thick I could barely breathe. Mom sat in the front passenger seat, her back straight as a board, looking ahead like I didn't exist. Dad gripped the steering wheel with white fingers, his jaw clenched tight. Neither of them had said a real word to me since they picked me up from Professor Kane's office.
Professor Kane. The memory of his cold words hit me like a punch to the stomach all over again. "You were never as special as I made you believe." How could he say that? How could everyone I trusted just turn their backs on me?
"Are you going to tell me what this is about?" I finally asked, breaking the awful quiet. "Or are we just going to pretend I don't exist?"
Mom's shoulders tightened, but she didn't turn around. "We'll discuss it at home."
"Discuss what? The fact that everyone thinks I'm a fake? The fact that my own teacher just told me I was never really talented?"
"Maya, please." Dad's voice was tired. "Not now."
"When then?" My voice was getting louder, but I didn't care. "When are we going to talk about what's happening to me? When are you going to ask me how I'm feeling? When are you going to tell me that you still believe in me?"
The quiet that followed was my answer.
I pressed my face against the cool window and watched familiar buildings blur past. We were driving through the fancy part of town where all the successful magical families lived. These were the parents who would be bragging about their children's Assessment results at dinner parties tonight. These were the people whose kids would be getting congratulations letters from the best magical universities.
And here I was, the loser daughter, riding home in shame.
"Your cousin Jessica called," Mom said suddenly, her voice tight. "She wanted to praise you on your Assessment. I had to tell her there was nothing to praise."
My stomach dropped. Jessica was my age, and she went to the rival school across town. She had always been jealous of my magical powers, always trying to show she was better than me at family gatherings. Now she would finally get what she wanted.
"What did you tell her?" I whispered.
"The truth." Mom's voice was cold. "That the Assessment revealed your magic isn't as strong as we thought."
"That's not the truth!" I shot forward in my seat. "Something went wrong! My magic didn't just disappear!"
"Maya, stop." Dad's voice was strong. "Just stop."
"Stop what? Stop trying to figure out what happened to me? Stop asking my own parents to help me?"
"Stop embarrassing us more than you already have!" Mom finally turned around, and I saw tears in her eyes. But they weren't tears of sadness for me. They were tears of anger and shame. "Do you have any idea what it was like to get that phone call? To hear that our daughter, the one we've been talking about for years, failed her Assessment in front of everyone?"
The words hit me like a slap. "So this is about you? About how my problems make you look bad?"
"Of course it's about us!" Mom's voice cracked. "We're your parents! When you fail, we fail! When you embarrass yourself, you embarrass our entire family!"
I stared at her, my heart breaking into a million pieces. "I didn't choose for this to happen. I don't understand it any more than you do."
"Well, you need to understand this," Dad said, pulling into our driveway. "Things are going to change around here."
Inside our house, everything looked the same, but somehow it all felt different. The family pictures on the mantle seemed to mock me. There was last year's picture of me winning the Junior Mage Competition. There was the picture of me getting the Outstanding Student Award. There was me demonstrating a complicated spell for my grandparents, their faces glowing with pride.
All lies, apparently. All fake successes from a fake daughter.
"Sit down," Dad said, pointing to the kitchen table. "We need to talk."
I sat, my hands folded in my lap like a little kid in trouble. Mom bustled around the kitchen, making tea with sharp, angry movements. Dad sat across from me and pulled out a folder.
"We've been doing some research," he said, opening the folder. "About schools for students with... limited magical abilities."
My blood turned cold. "What kind of schools?"
"There's a place called Riverside School," Mom said, setting down three cups of tea. "It's for kids who need extra help with their magic. Students who aren't ready for the advanced coursework at places like Starfall Academy."
"You want to send me away?" My voice came out as a squeak.
"We want to send you somewhere you can succeed," Dad said. "Somewhere you won't be constantly reminded of your... limitations."
"My limitations?" I stood up so fast my chair fell backward. "Three weeks ago, you were telling everyone I was the most bright student at Starfall Academy! Now I have limitations?"
"Three weeks ago, we didn't know the truth!" Mom slammed her tea cup down, and hot liquid splashed across the table. "Three weeks ago, we believed in something that wasn't real!"
"It was real!" I was screaming now, my magic sparking around my hands in angry little bursts. "Look! I can still do magic! It's not gone!"
But even as I said it, I could feel how weak the sparks were. How wrong they felt. It was like trying to write with a broken pencil – the marks were there, but they were faint and shaky.
Dad stared at my hands, and I saw disgust flash across his face. "That's not magic, Maya. That's just... extra energy. Like the dying remains of a fire."
His words crushed the last bit of hope in my chest. I sank back into my chair, all the fight going out of me.
"Riverside School has a good program," Mom said, her voice softer now. "They help students find new ways. Maybe you could study magical theory instead of actual magic. Maybe you could become a writer or a historian."
"I don't want to be a researcher," I whispered. "I want to be a mage. I've wanted to be a mage since I was five years old."
"Sometimes we have to let go of childhood dreams," Dad said. "Sometimes we have to face reality."
I looked at my parents – really looked at them. These were the people who used to cheer at my magic performances. These were the people who used to tell me I could do anything. Now they were looking at me like I was a stranger. Like I was a problem they needed to solve.
"When do I start at Riverside?" I asked quietly.
"Monday," Mom said. "We've already enrolled you."
Monday. That was four days away. Four days to say goodbye to everything I'd ever dreamed of being.
"Can I be excused?" I asked. "I want to go to my room."
Dad nodded, and I stood up slowly, my legs feeling like jelly.
As I walked toward the stairs, I heard Mom say to Dad, "Do you think we're doing the right thing?"
"What choice do we have?" Dad whispered back. "After what happened today, no good magical school will take her. At least at Riverside, she might find some kind of future."
I froze on the stairs, my hand holding the banister. What happened today? What was he talking about?
" The Assessment results were one thing," Dad continued, "but when Professor Kane called to tell us that Maya had been using magical enhancement devices all along... Sarah, our daughter is a liar. She's been lying to us for years."
The world turned sideways. Professor Kane had called them? He had told them I was a cheater?
But that wasn't what made my blood freeze. It was what Dad said next. " At least the Kane family knows what we're going through. Professor Kane said his daughter Emma is having dreams about Maya's 'exposure' at school. He's scared that Maya might try to hurt other students out of revenge. "
I gripped the banister so hard my fingers turned white. Professor Kane's daughter Emma was seven years old. She was in second grade at the public school. She didn't even know I existed.
Why would Professor Kane lie about his own daughter having fears about me?
And then, like a bolt of lightning, the truth hit me.
Professor Kane hadn't just abandoned me. He had deliberately tried to destroy me. He had called my parents and told them lies about me being a liar. He had made up stories about his daughter being afraid of me.
But why? What could possibly make him want to hurt me so badly?
I crept up the stairs to my room, my mind racing. Something was very, very wrong here. And it was bigger than just my failed Assessment.
As I reached my bedroom door, I heard my phone buzz with a text message. I pulled it out, expecting another cruel message from one of my old classmates.
Instead, I saw a number I didn't recognize: "Maya, you're in more danger than you know. Trust no one from your old life. Meet me at the old oak tree behind Riverside School tomorrow at midnight. Come alone. Someone who still believes in you."
I stared at the message until the screen went dark, my heart racing. Who could have sent this? And what did they mean about danger?
But more importantly – was this my first ray of hope, or was I going into an even bigger trap?