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No one would suggest that the Crossmanâs werenât normal. They had a thriving business, a kid, and never did anything that would attract even the tiniest bit of attention towards them. One might say that they were the perfect family. Regardless of what people may say, the Crossmanâs were far from normal despite their plan to fool the dull-minded. Only Damian and Amy knew they werenât normal in the neighbourhood, Julian hadnât told been told about the world of magic yet, which is why Amy and Damian both found it hard to keep their cover around their son at times.
Damian Crossman was an odd man, he would usually spend time in the downstairs basement for hours, leaving his son (Julian Crossman) puzzled as to why he liked being in the dusty room that he was never allowed in.
Amy Crossman (Damianâs wife) was a cheerful woman; full of life. She was also a very determined person, if she was ever looking for a book, she would search for what would seem days, (and sometimes was). Although she wanted to encourage Julian to read more, she never allowed Julian to read or touch any of her foundingâs regarding magic. When he asked why she would simply say,
âBooks can be dangerous to people who donât understand them.â As she made her way towards the basement, Julian would wish he could follow his mother and see what she was doing. The twelve-year-old boy would vaguely hear them speaking down there and would fantasise about what they would be talking about.
Their shop was called Salmonâs in honour of Amyâs father, Salmon Johnson. Although their shop opened at half six in the morning, they would always end up opening it a lot later so, before going to bed, Damian would set the alarm on his phone, say goodnight to little Julian and go to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Amy on the other hand, could never go to sleep if it wasnât at least twelve oâclock at night. She would make herself busy by sorting out the shopâs finances, cooking or even cleaning: She hated when the house was a mess. When twelve oâclock would finally come, she would start to feel tired and would retire to her room, grabbing all the sleep she could get before Damianâs phone would ring to wake her up. Before they knew it, the alarm would ring; either Damien or Amy, whoeverâs turn it was, would wake up and have a shower first whilst the other would happily carry on sleeping till their partner had finished. If it was a weekday, Julian would wake before them to wash, but fortunate for him it wasnât. The couple would then make their way to the shop with Julian, acting as if they were a normal family. They would then open doors and wait for customers to come flooding in as per usual.
The shop was very popular, so there was no surprise when all different kind of short, chubby, tall and masculine people came in; But every few days, Julian would find that a peculiar customer would often visit to speak to his parents. They would wander in the shop, as if to buy something, touch a few things, then have a hushed conversation with Amy and Damien. Once, Julian saw a lady wearing a pink and black jumpsuit that only reached her knees, size eight wellies that were clearly too big for her, and black sunglasses even thou sunlight hadnât made it through the clouds yet.
On this particular morning, a man in a black coat with a scarf covering half his face came in and handed them a white envelope embroidered with a symbol Julian was too far away to see and said.
âWell done, you have both saved our race again.â
âWe couldnât have done it without you.â
Amy answered back to the man.
âAll I did was retrieve it, you guys did all the heavy lifting.â
The man then looked down at Julian obviously curious about the boy, âWhoâs this?â
âOur friendsâ son. She asked us to look after him.â
"I could swear that he looks like the both of you⌠Thatâs weird. Anyway, Iâm leaving before it starts getting too crowded in here. âMadam Coco and Madam Enerst are defiantly going to try and arrive here before everyone else to take some of the credit, I donât want to be here when they do. Cheerio.â
The man left the shop waving his hands behind him. Julian looked at his parentâs hurt that his mother would say that.
âAm I adopted? You never told me I was adopted. My life is a lie.â
Julian rambled not even allowing his parents to speak.
âNo, youâre not adopted.â
âThen why did you say I was your friendâs son?â
âIt was a joke.â Damian lied.
Before Julian could speak, two peculiar women came strutting in the shop, as if they were important. One wore a bright pink hat with a massive beaded necklace that hung down her skinny fragile neck. She also wore a black jumpsuit that only reached up to her knees and grey boots.
The other had a sparkly dress enveloped with sequences that shone so bright that Julian had to cover her eyes as she walked past the window. She had high heels so tall it could be mistaken for stilts.
âHello, Love.â
âMadam Coco.â
Amy said like there was something sour on her tongue.
" You came."
âOf course, I did darling, how could I miss our big day.â
âOur big day?â Damian questioned.
âWell, of course, was it not me who convinced the both of you to take him down.â
âNo, not really,â Amy stated.
"Well, of course, she didnât. The other one said. âI did.â
âNo, you didnât Ernest, youâre always trying to take credit for everything I do. If I didnât know better, I would say you are jealous of me.â
âMe jealous of you, are you kidding. I am way better than you will ever be.â
âCan the both of you shut up!â
The two fell silent on Amyâs command.
âThe press will be here any minute, letâs not give them a reason to write something we will all regret.â
âOh, sheâs Enerst⌠I mean⌠imagine what they will write if they hear us bickering in this dreary shop.â
Madam Coco looked around the shop with disgust.
" We cannot be seen squabbling in this hell hole."
âI know right⌠imagine. Crossmanâs and the madams bickering.â Madam Enerst said.
âNasty talk between the Madamâs.â Madam Coco groaned.
âI donât even want to think about it; all this talk is giving me a nasty headache.â
Madam Ernest opened her crocodile patterned bag and pulled out what Julian could only imagine as a sweet and popped it in her mouth.
âThatâs better.â She sighed with a relaxed look on her face.
âQuick Enerst snap out of it, the press is coming. Here.â Madam Coco raised her hand and a white makeup bag came floating towards Enerst. She grabbed it like she would die if she didnât have it, desperately putting makeup on her face before the press could come in. Julian looked at Madam Coco wandering how she had made the bag float. He thought that his parents had paid a magician to come and do magic but dismissed the idea as his birthday wasnât till a couple of weeks.
âCome here. Stand by Damian. You never prepared honestly how are you, my sister.â
"Oh, be quiet. Remember to smile to the camera Coco, otherwise, youâll look like the troll you are. Madam Coco was about to argue again but stopped and put a big grin on her face as groups of people came rushing through the door. Desperate news reporters hurriedly tried to talk to Julianâs parents whilst photographersâ cameras flashed in their faces realising blinding white lights. Fans stood massed behind the barricade of reporters cheering Damianâs and Amyâs name. All this was happening, and all Julianâs parents could think of was how this was bad for their cover. Paparazziâs massed behind the fans trying to get a good picture of the couple. Being restless, one even stood on a chair. Julian thought he should stand by his parents but realised his parents most likely wouldnât like him to.
âOk one at a time guys, youâre making our clientâs nervous.â
Amy looked at Ernest with a raised eyebrow.
âLetâs get comments from the crowd first. Then we will answer questions from the reporters.â
As soon as she finished talking, fans started screaming
âWell done guys.â One of them said.
âYouâve saved us.â
âThank you.â
âWhere did it happen?â
âWe owe you.â
One even said, âI love you, Amy.â Another said,
âYou have inspired me to do magic again.â Julian thought he meant party tricks but was sceptical when he could have sworn, he saw a fireball appear and disappear in the womenâs hands.
A multitude of compliments kept on coming and even a few handshakes. At one point, a news reporter asked, âHow was it possible that you were able to defeat Viren Ripper?â The news reporter pointed the mic at Amy and Damien, waiting for an answer. They both looked at each other till Damien broke the silence by saying,
âA magician never reveals his secret.â
âCome on, wonât you share your success to all the magicians at home. Donât you think all the magicians deserve to know how he was defeated.â
Julian had learned at school how news reporters used words to guilt people into telling their story and then exaggerated it to make the news sound more exciting; Julian knew that was what was happening now and felt sorry for his parents
âWe banished him.â Amy blurted out. Damian looked at Amy with a frown on his face. She was never one to keep secrets.
âYou banished him, buâŚbut thatâs impossible, no you couldnât have. You would have to hold him first and then send him to a place he canât get out off. Surely you didnât. Even Damianâs famous air prison wouldnât be able to contain him for long.â The reporter faltered forgetting for a moment she was on tv.
âIâm sorry we canât tell you any more for safety reasons.â
âYes, you can.â
âNo, we cant.â Damian looked irritated. Madam Ernest looked at the Crossmanâs with eyes wide open. âWhat are you doing Crossmanâs?â
âWe canât tell them.â
âLook this will be our big break since Alvin Prestige. Please just answer the question.â
âIâm sorry Coco, we canât.â
"Well then, from now on its madam Coco to you.
âAnd Madam Enerst to you.â They both left storming out of the door.
As time went by, the reporters left without the answers they were looking for, fans started getting tired of cheering and left to go home, leaving Julian and his parents alone in the shop.
âWhat was that all about,â Julian said. Amy looked at Damian than at Julian.
âWe entered an award of best shop in stoke and we won.â Amy lied.
âWhy were they talking about magic then.â Julian pursued his curiosity.
"Julian you ask a lot of questions for a small boy. âLetâs go home, you have school tomorrow.â
The family closed the shop and drove home. Julian ate dinner then went to bed happy to be rid of the eerier silence.
The next day the Crossmanâs carried on with their normal routine only this time Julian was going to school and his parents seemed unusually excited. Usually, before he left the house, one of his many friends, Yves would accompany him to school, but because he had to go to school early to complete homework, he walked alone. At school, when we were told we could bring in our own clothes, Joel and Naomi Seaman were the kind of people that would make fun of you if you werenât wearing anything that wasnât Adidas, Nike, Puma or Gucci. Unfortunately, today they had been moved to Julianâs registration class. Already causing mischief, they found numerous ways to annoy everyone in the class, either by continuously drumming their fingers on the table, mocking people or kicking legs under their desks making sure it would leave a bruise as time would go on. Although they were badly behaving, miss Evans threatened to dish out detentions for their bad behaviour and send them to spend lunchtime with Mr Dodd if it continued. No one liked spending their lunchtime with Mr Dodd, which is why even the naughtiest children thought twice before carrying on with their bad behaviour. Even though in school he was seen as a mean horrible man, various students have said that he could be nice outside of school.
In English Max Frazer regularly messed around in a quest to get Julian to laugh. Today, he pulled faces, whispered funny remarks when the teacher spoke until Julian couldnât help it anymore and burst out laughing. Mrs Low than told Julian off. Max also asked Mrs Low stupid question purposely, forcing her to stop teaching. Jaydan would from time to time join Max in his shenanigans. No one could deny that they both made tedious English lessons interesting.
Julian never liked maths, and his decision about it didnât change when he walked through the maths doors. Itâs not that he found it hard; he didnât like it because he was freakishly good at it and got embarrassed when people would compliment him on how good his arithmetic was, he would just blush and felt like hiding away from everybody. Julian always dreaded it when they were given maths homework. Today he wondered what topic their homework would be on. Pythagoras, trigonometry or algebra? Even though he hated the idea of spending precious doing boring work set by the teacher, Tayler, Leyton, Shaaf and Tyler brought a smile to his face as he knew they would find different ways to keep him from falling asleep. Mr Ponsford, Julianâs maths teacher, had a reputation for being strict and as some people may say, unfair. In lessons Julian said knew that the rumours werenât true: the dedication he put into teaching was noticeable.
In biology, Julian had a Newly Married teacher who use to be called miss Edwards. She told us to carry on calling her that as we always kept on forgetting her new surname name, so when we were to ask for help, weâd end up saying Mrs about fifty times till she finally decided that we should just call her by her previous surname.
In chemistry, Julian had a Canadian teacher called Miss OâNeil. His classmate would attempt to do her accent and laughed when she would say: âThatâs not even close.â Beth, who was also in this lesson, had figured that Miss OâNeil was best friends with another biology Canadian teacher, Mrs Tracy. When she told Miss OâNeil this, she blushed and asked her how she found out.
RE, to everyoneâs surprise, was fun. Although we had to learn Keywords, Mrs Pool always found a fun way to make the lesson interesting.
PE was the best lesson in Julianâs opinion, although he didnât really like doing rowing.
When school ended Julian felt fatigued, he had forgotten how exhausting lessons could be and dreamt of lying on his bed peacefully with no distractions. He exercised this thought in his head as he started walking home from school. Julian thought he would go home to a comfy chair on his back, his feet laying on a feet rest. What he discovered was something a lot worse.
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