True Colours

Laverne gently fingered the leaf growing from the stem of the sweet smelling flower in her family's garden. As she did so, a light rain began to fall and she stayed a moment, watching as fresh water droplets appeared on the leaf before falling to the ground, making it temporarily darker in a little circle where the drop had fallen.

Meanwhile, Cheryl, who was a few years younger than her sister was inside, practicing her magic. "Dlareme" She called, pointing her wand at a vase across the room. The particular spell was supposed to make an object fly, and allow the caster to bring it to them. But, it didn't work and the vase flew only a few metres before crashing to the grand and shattering into several broken fragments. She tried another spell, to turn a fairly invaluable object into something else. But that too malfunctioned, leaving the object half of what it used to be and half what she'd attempted to turn it into, rendering it unusable.

Cheryl screamed, throwing another vase on the ground in angry frustration, smiling defiantly at the satisfying crash as the vase hit the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces. She continued to smile as she threw the half transformed object to the floor in retaliation for the spells gone awry, as if it was somehow the object's fault.

Laverne walked into the room, seeming to glide as she made her way over to her sister, carefully dodging the broken vase pieces on her way. She put a calm hand on Cheyl's shoulder and smiled.
"It's alright."
Cheryl glared at her sister, her face red with the tension coursing through her body.
"Alright?" She asked. "What do you mean 'alright'? In what way is this," Cheryl gestured at the two piles of broken vases and the half transformed object on the floor. "Alright?"
"Well, we can easily fix that." She said, gesturing at the half transformed object. "And as for that, well, we can clean that up easily."
"You mean you can." Cheryl retorted.

For years, it went on like that. Cheryl was always being outshone by Laverne, who seemed to have a natural talent for magic. One day though, Laverne's life began to fall apart. Her engagement was called off and she was left with nothing. She hadn't yet managed to establish a career and her social life was a scandal after her break up.

Hunter had been Laverne's best friend since childhood but little did she realize, he'd had a secret crush on her that dated back to their teenage years. In the midst of her rage, Hunter was caught in the crossfire of a spell she'd cast, vert, which transformed one object into another and also worked on people. She'd meant to cast it on something inanimate, but Hunter had got in the way and so the spell had instead been cast upon him.

Cheryl had arrived at just the right moment and tried to reverse the spell. Unfortunately, she pronounced the counter spell slightly wrong and as a result, the original spell was only half reversed. Growing up, Cheryl had never really liked Hunter, instead, she was always jealous of the friendship he had with Laverne, and not with her.

Now, a Frankenstein of sorts, Hunter fled, believing Cheryl had cursed him for being friends with her sister and he was never seen again. This was the point at which things for Laverne started to look up. She got a job as the assistant of the town mayor and her social status within the community rose once again.

Before long, things were the way they'd once been. People kept their distance from Cheryl, shuddering when they saw her and trying desperately not to be noticed. Laverne meanwhile was always stopped so the townspeople could give her compliments and tell her how great she was. She had many friends.

But soon, Laverne newly regained power got to her head. She began using her popularity and the influence her position as the town mayor's assistant gave her to spread terrible rumors of her sister. "Did you hear what she did to that poor young man?" A woman asked, whispering to her friend on a street corner. "He turned that innocent young man into a monster!"
"Hey look!" Whispered the woman's friend urgently. "There she is now!" She pointed with a shaky finger toward Cheryl, who stood on the opposite side of the road, waiting to cross.
"Don't make eye contact." The first woman warned. "She might turn us into stone!"
"Or worse." Her friend shuddered.
'You shouldn't let statements like that bother you.' Cheryl recited over and over in her head, an attempt to keep herself calm.

As she walked across the road, Cheryl shook her head at the two woman who had been gossiping about her. They were now running in the opposite direction, most likely fearing for their lives. As she continued along the path, she noticed a small young boy hiding under a public bench. She knelt down and smiled at him. He began to cower and was near tears with fear.
"It's alright. I won't hurt you." She said gently. "You look hungry. Here you go." Carefully, Cheryl pulled a piece of bread from her shopping bag and held it out to the little boy, who shuffled back, pressing himself against a bench pole.

Continuing to smile, Cheryl reached back into her shopping bag. This time, she pulled out a small paper bag and set it on the ground, placing the bread atop it and pushing it toward the boy. She backed away a fraction and watched as the boy cautiously reached out to take the piece of bread and took a few tiny bites before hungrily eating what remained.