Magique
an excerpt

Siriol
My mother has always told me that I am special. My father has always told me that I am his favorite daughter. I think I’ve gotten the idea by now. I wish they’d just shut up about it now though, I get it, they love me. I mean, who wouldn’t? The whole damn town loves me; I’m a freaking celebrity.
Mayor Angelia knows my name and we go out for hot chocolate every now and then. The swim instructors at the pool like to shower me with gifts. All of the park rangers let me into places where normal people can’t go, and the florists never let me pay for my flowers. Nightclubs and bars are open to me, though the owners won’t let me drink anything more than zero proof. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made a Siriol Day in my honor. I’m a superstar in this idiotic town.
The thing I really hate though is that I don’t even know why I’m so famous. The only clue I have is that everyone in the town calls me Princess, I once asked my mother about it, but she said it was a nickname to show how much everyone loved me. I asked her why everyone loved me and she pretended not to hear. It really made me mad.

Amber
You would think that I would be used to the idea of my parents moving to a new place every few months, but this time it was really unexpected. We’d only been living in some middle of nowhere town with my aunt for three days, hardly a few months, when dad said the words that signify a new move.
“Aren’t y’all a little bored here? Don’t cha just want something new?”
Mom replied in the same way she always does. “You know what? I would like something new!”
Then they both turned to me, like always, and waited for me to say what I always say, “It couldn’t be too bad,”
And that was that, Dad started talking about the new place we would be living, and Mom would ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ at the right times, and I would head to my room and start packing. I could already visualize my old red suitcase and the things that I would shortly be cramming into it.
When I entered the room I was staying in the whole packing thing was just too depressing, so I got on the laptop dad bought a couple months ago when he started selling his paintings online. I decided I would google the town we were moving to, dad had said it was called Magique.