You can buy this story here: Buy The Trouble With Magic - Chapter 1!
The Trouble With Magic Chapter 1: The Amulet
by MagnusMagneto
1) Early August
Summer was drawing to its end. Fifteen year old Milo was both excited and anxious to enter high school as a sophomore in a mere month. On one hand, he was eager to take the next step in his education ‘career’ – one step closer to freedom from school, but on the other hand he felt… small. Standing at a fairly slight 5’6”, Milo was constantly reassured that he would have his ‘big growth spurt’ sometime soon, but he wasn’t convinced. Both of his parents were small people, his mother standing 5′ flat and his father an unimpressive 5’7”.
Regrettably, Milo rarely saw his mother anymore. His parents had divorced a few years prior, and his father gained custody of him. She now lived on the other side of the country with a new husband, while Milo’s father, Howard, had become a caring, albeit somewhat lonely single father. All of that seemed to be changing however. Howard had been dating a women for the past six months or so and apparently successfully proposed to her.
The teen hadn’t met this mysterious woman yet, and only knew her as Diana. All he had heard from his father was that she was also a single mother, had a daughter of her own, and that she was apparently quite beautiful. Milo often wondered what this woman really looked like. He imagined she was probably similar to his mother, and probably not as hot as Howard thought she was.
–
Today Milo was feeling an extra wave of excitement – he was slated to meet the mysterious Diana. He spent the majority of the morning playing video games and browsing the internet, until he heard the front door start to unlock. That’s when he knew that it was time to meet his father’s new ‘woman of his dreams’.
The door slowly opened and… Milo couldn’t believe the sight that met his eyes. Howard was right – his new step-mother was drop dead gorgeous! The first thing that caught his eye was her long, exposed legs. She was wearing a short-skirt that barely concealed her tanned, toned gams that seemed to ‘go on forever’. Her high-heels caused her impressive calves to bulge outward, and elevated her beauty even further. Following the legs up, Milo quickly noted how tall the woman was. Diana stood nearly a full head taller than his 5’7” father.
“This is your future step mother Milo!” Howard said, grinning ear to ear.
Milo could totally understand the massive grin on his father’s face – he somehow bagged the queen of all hotties! He tried to find the right words to greet her with, but was rendered dumbfounded.
Sensing the tension, the amazonian woman spoke. “Hey Milo!” she greeted warmly. Her voice was unbelievably rich and veritably dripped with sex appeal.
The teenager’s head was spinning. How was this possible? How could his derpy father’s fiance be… this!? “Uh.. hey.” he mousily replied.
Diana continued smiling as she took a few steps towards him. As she drew near, Milo caught a whiff of her scent – an incredible aroma unlike any he had ever experienced before. Merely being in the woman’s presence made the teen blush.
Diana chuckled lightly. Even her laugh had an incredible combination of femininity and confidence. “You’re a cute little guy.” she said reaching over and gently ruffling his hair. “I bet you and Athena will make good playmates.”
“Athena?” Milo asked.
“Oh, you never told him Howie?” the tall woman asked, turning to her fiance.
“Ah, shoot! I mentioned you had a daughter, but we haven’t talked about her much, sorry.” Howard explained.
Diana shrugged. “No worries. You’ll get to meet her soon after we move in.” she explained with a supplementary wink.
“M-move in?” Milo sputtered.
“Yeah, that’s right!” As Diana spoke, another enchanting odor met Milo’s nose – even the woman’s breath smelt heavenly.
Howard was a tad flushed that he hadn’t properly briefed his son on what was going on. “Sorry to lay this all on you now, but, that’s right. We’re going to have a family here!”
The thought of living under the same roof as this woman was an incredibly exciting prospect for Milo. He was enthralled with the idea of being around her more often, but simultaneously terrified of the very same notion. He had recently really come into his sexuality recently, and Diana was the spitting image of perfection.
The adults noticed Milo’s silence and presumed that something was the matter. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry Milo.” Diana commented sincerely.
“Hey buddy, I thought you wanted to have some more company in the old house?” Howard added, unsure of what was wrong with breaking this news to his son.
Milo blinked a few times. “No, no, it’s not that. It’s cool, I just…” he once again was staring at Diana. Even her arms were long, tanned and toned. A slight hint of muscularity protruded from the woman, and he could tell there was virtually no fat on her body aside from her ample breasts. “Just a lot to suddenly take in, ya know?”
A smile met the couple’s face. “Of course!” they both chimed in. “Nothing wrong with that.” Diana added, her voice retaining its consistent warmth.
“Anyway, you’ll get to meet your new step-sister in a couple days. I’m going to show Diana a look around the house, okay?”
2) A few days later
Diana had brought her daughter over for Milo to meet. After a stilted introduction, the adults left the two young teenagers alone.
The girl was somewhat similar to her albeit much shorter, standing at 5’5”. Still – she was fairly tall for a girl her age, especially considering she was nearly the same height as Milo himself. She had the same tanned skin, brown eyes and dark hair as her mother. Milo admitted that she was pretty cute, but knew he had to emotionally distance himself given their soon-to-be relation.
“Athena, huh? What a goofy name.” Milo mused, trying to be somewhat of a jerk to prevent any possible formation of feelings.
“It’s not like ‘Milo’ is that much better.” The girl shot back.
“Yeah, yeah. So what are you, some kind of spartan warrior?”
Athena smirked. “If you think that’s an original comment, you’re out of luck.”
Milo had to admit that for a 13 year old girl, she certainly had a build appropriate for a young Spartan warrior. Every limb on her body was surprisingly thick. While the teen didn’t have the visibly defined muscles of her mother, Milo deduced that she was probably pretty strong for her age.
“Well, uh, what do you do, Athena?” his pronunciation of her name was still stilted. He wasn’t used to referring to a girl by the same name as a Greek goddess.
The girl shrugged. “Mostly play sports and hang around.”
“Oh, cool.” Milo realized that they likely wouldn’t have much in common given his own habits.
“And what do you do?”
“Oh, you know…” Milo decided he didn’t want to give a first impression that he was someone who just played games and used the computer all day – even if that was the truth. “See friends and stuff.”
Athena could quickly tell something was off with his response. “Riiiight…”
The two teens idly chitchatted a bit longer before realizing they had little common ground with one another. Unsure of what to do, they watched some television until their parents were finished with whatever it was they were doing.
–
Over the course of the next week, Diana and her daughter moved in. To Milo’s surprise, doubling the number of occupants in their house didn’t really change that much. Milo mostly kept to himself and didn’t interact too often with his new step-mother and sister. Diana and her fiance assumed that the boy was simply shy and needed some time to acclimate – they were mostly correct.
A few days later, Milo wandered into the living room one morning and found a yoga mat sprawled on the ground, with Athena on top of it performing push-ups.
“Whatcha doin’ ‘Thena?” Milo asked, noting the younger girl hard at work.
“Push ups, duh.” she blankly responded before continuing with the motion. As she pushed herself down, the innate thickness of her arms grew more apparent.
“Oh, right.” Milo responded, quickly realizing how stupid his question must have sounded. He watched his younger step-sister complete repetition after repetition at a consistent and swift pace.
“31…” she counted before performing another. “32…” Athena continued all the way up to 40 before she came to a stop. After finishing her set, she realized that Milo had been blankly staring at her the entire time. “How many of these can you do anyway?”
“Uhh, you know, tons.” Milo lied. He had no idea how many he could perform.
“Oh. Wanna show me?” the girl asked.
“Not now. I already did a ton this morning.” he lied again.
Athena had a strong suspicion that her step-brother wasn’t telling the truth. “I bet you can’t even do twenty.”
“What? No way. I can do, you know, like 60, easy. I’m a guy after all. Anyway, I gotta go, uh, do some stuff.” he lied once more before making an exit.
The younger girl rolled her eyes dismissively before performing another set of push-ups.
–
A few hours later, Milo was in his room getting into a push up position. The mere act of getting into the stance made his arms wobble, and it was difficult to maintain it. After getting his bearings, he pushed himself down to the ground in the same manner Athena was a few hours earlier. Getting down to that point was challenging in itself, and pushing himself up felt nearly impossible. Through sheer will he managed to do so and repeated the process a few more times. After a mere ten reps, Milo practically collapsed to the ground, physically spent.
Sitting back up after his little workout, Milo felt a pit form in his stomach. He couldn’t believe how easy Athena made the push ups look, and how impossible they seemed for him.
2.5)
Milo made it something of a personal mission to beat his younger step-sister in push ups. It was a goal that sounded petty, but it was a matter of pride for the teen. Every day he’d do as many push ups as he possibly could in the morning, afternoon and evening. To his delight, he found that he was making steady progress, gradually increasing the number of push ups he could do every few days.
School had started, and Milo could perform a solid 30 push ups. He was proud of his progress, but knew he had a ways to go in order to catch up to Athena. The teen kept going with the exercise, and by the early October, could do a full 60 – the number he claimed to Athena he could perform a couple months prior.
That weekend, Milo strategically happened upon the living room while his step-sister was hard at work on her calisthenics.
“Hey ‘Thena, whatcha doin’?” he asked nonchalantly.
Athena rolled her eyes and sighed. “You know exactly what I’m doing. Anyway, are you finally going to show me what you’ve got?”
“Yes actually!” Milo nearly shouted. Feeling confident and ready to show off, the teen got down and started cranking out push ups. He kept a surprisingly fast pace, and was using proper form to boot. Proudly, he counted out each individual rep. Around the 40 mark, he began to feel the familiar burn, but kept up with the exercise. Desperate to prove a point, he kept pushing himself. Eventually, after declaring “61” the teen fell down, exhausted.
“Not bad.” Athena commented.
“See, told you I could do tons!” Milo exclaimed, sitting up with a huge grin on his face.
“That was just a warmup, right?”
“Oh, uh… yeah, of course.” he lied.
“Guess it’s my turn to warm up then.” Athena said with a smirk before getting down on the mat. Suddenly the girl started performing push ups at a blistering pace. Milo was awestruck at how much faster she was than the last time he watched her perform the exercise.
Within a matter of moments, she had passed the 30 repetition mark and was still going strong. She kept going, her pace never wavering. Before long she was calling out the “61” mark that Milo had collapsed on. The boy gulped loudly as he watched her fit body continue to pump out rep after rep.
After what felt like a short eternity, Athena finally stopped at 100 push ups. “I don’t think there’s much of a point to do more than that.” she explained before getting up. “Surely a tough guy like you agrees, right?”
“Uh, yeah, definitely…” Milo lied once more before making a hasty exit.
Milo knew that he’d have to work even harder to catch up to his step-sister!
3)
The following day at school.
Even if Athena could show him up in the calisthenics department, Milo was still feeling far more confident about himself. His body had become fairly toned from all the exercise, and he knew he was in better shape than most of the other guys his age. Feeling invincible, Milo decided he’d finally ask out his crush.
– The same day, after school –
Milo couldn’t believe it! How could she have turned him down so quickly? She said he was cute, and even mentioned how nice and smart he was! Mulling it over, Milo deduced that it must have been because he was so… wimpy. It was no secret that the girls in his class were fawning over the senior jocks, even if they weren’t the brightest or kindest guys around.
He contemplated doing more push ups, but realized that he wasn’t going to really grow due to them. Fed up, Milo decided to meet with his father on the matter, and asked if they could have a weight set in the house. Howard was thrilled that his son was interested in building up his body and quickly ordered a starter weight set for his son.
A few days later, the weights arrived. The delivery crew brought them into an often unused guest bedroom in the house, which would soon be re-purposed into a home gym.
“Kind of a wimpy setup.” Athena said, eying the weights. There was a set of dumbbells with 5 pound increments spanning from 5 to 30, a bench, and a barbell with plates allowing up to 160 lbs of resistance.
“Watch your mouth young lady.” Diana scolded. “It’s a great setup, especially for a beginner!”
Milo was floored with the weights. “Well, I’m extremely grateful for them!” he exclaimed, already planning on using them the same evening.
“Glad you like ’em son!” Howard joined in before giving his son a pat on the back.
Athena rolled her eyes, but was still interested in pushing her body further with the setup. “Say, I can use these too, right?”
“No way young lady.” Diana ordered. “You’re still developing and all of that.”
The teenage girl let out a sigh. “What if I get an OK from a doctor?”
Diana mulled the proposition over and agreed. It was settled – Athena would get a checkup in the next couple days, and Milo would get to work on building himself up right away.
3.5)
A week later
Milo had been consistently using the weight set, but had yet to make much progress. While he was hard at work, his step-sister came into the makeshift gym.
“Good news bro.” Athena started with a somewhat irritating undertone to her voice. Milo hated it when she referred to him as ‘bro’. “Just got the results from the doctor!”
Milo felt a familiar knot form in his stomach, he already had a good idea of where this was headed. “And?” he replied, prompting her to continue.
“Well, for starters, the doc says I’ve got a good amount of growth left in me.”
The teenage boy gulped. “What exactly does that mean?” he asked tentatively.
“I’ll likely become as tall as my mother, if not taller.” she explained with a grin.
The knot in Milo’s stomach tightened. He hated the idea that this girl was likely going to outgrow him in a matter of a couple years. “Oh, uh, cool.” he offered, not wanting to be rude.
“Aaaand…” she continued. “I got the go-ahead to lift weights!” she practically shouted.
Milo blinked a couple times. “Wouldn’t that mess with your growth plates or something?”
The girl shook her head. “Nah. That’s a myth that was debunked a while ago.” she explained before proudly marching up to Milo’s modest array of dumbbells. She bent over and grabbed the 15 pounders.
“Hey, careful with those.” Milo started, but his step-sister was already hard at work curling the weights in her hands. The muscles in Athena’s limbs popped out slightly from the motion.
“Strange bro, I could’ve sworn that you use the 20’s, which don’t weigh that much more than these.” she said as she casually slung the weights with ease.
“I do… though I’m up to the 25s, ya know?” Milo lied.
Athena raised an eyebrow – she suspected he was lying, but it was funner to indulge the boy. “Well, the 15s clearly aren’t doing much for me.” she explained before grabbing the 20’s. As she lifted the weights, her arms bulged out further than they had before. “Now this is the ticket!” she cooed, feeling a burning sensation in her arms.
Milo watched as his step-sister went through an upper body workout. Her lifts were not too far off from her own. In fact, her chest must have been stronger as she was able to bench 110 pounds to his own 100.
Flabberasted, Milo stormed out of the weight room and back to his bedroom. He couldn’t believe that a girl a two years younger than him was able to not only do far more pushups than he could, but could bench more weight than him too!
Milo decided enough was enough. He was ready to resort to anything in order to become stronger! A strange idea entered his mind – what about… magic? It was a huge long-shot, but he may as well try to do some research on the topic. The teen booted up his computer and got to work.
–
Hours passed as Milo poured himself into this bizarre topic of research. He searched and searched, almost everything leading to dead ends until on an off-chance he investigated a link on an anonymous message board. Milo couldn’t believe what he had found. There was another anonymous message board, but entirely dedicated to… magic.
Most of what he found seemed to be bunk, but he quickly caught sight of a theory that he could believe: There were in fact people who had the capability of casting magic, but they were an extreme minority. Because of this, very few people who could cast magic actually bothered to try at all. It was an extreme longshot, but Milo figured he had nothing to lose. He found a spell that could allegedly imbue properties into common household items. If it was real, he simply would have to use a specific prefix to the spell to imbue the property of his choice.
With a bit more research, he found a spell that would give an item the ability to ‘gather strength’ for whoever was wearing it. Digging around his closet, he found an amulet with a green gem in the center. “Here goes nothing” he said to himself as he prepared to cast the spell.
“Convalesco.” He muttered, clutching the amulet tightly in his hand. The green stone in the center lit up for a moment, shining brilliantly before dying back down. Milo’s heart fluttered. Was it possible that the spell… worked!? At long last, all of Milo’s strength troubles would disappear! Without delay, he threw the necklace on.
Strange… Milo didn’t feel any different. “I guess it needs to be activated or something.” he reasoned. After dwelling on the conundrum for a few more moments, he decided he needed to create a situation for his body to require more strength. He moved over to the home gym and grabbed an appropriately heavy dumbbell. As Milo lifted the iron, he simply felt the same as he always did.
‘Maybe I need a bigger catalyst for change.’ he thought before placing the weight down and grabbing a dumbbell he could barely lift. To his frustration, the weight was simply difficult for him to lift instead of granting him greater strength. Clutching the amulet again his his hands, he said the words once more, this time more loudly and with force. “CONVALESCO!”
This time he could tangibly feel an indeterminable amount of energy leaving his body, and the amulet lit up once more – this time glowing more brightly before dimming down again. He placed it around his neck again and again felt nothing. Milo tried to exercise with the twice imbued necklace, but yet more nothing happened.
Aggravated, Milo threw the amulet on his desk and went to sleep.
4)
The next morning.
As Milo got ready for class, he saw the amulet sitting on his desk. On a whim, he decided to bring it with him, hoping that maybe it’d somehow activate and finally work on him. Realizing he’d look ridiculous wearing a necklace to school, he shoved it into his coat pocket and left.
–
A few hours later in English class.
Despite only being 14 years old, Claire felt like she was in her prime. The college freshman had already attracted the attention of senior jocks and freshmen dweebs alike. Puberty had come early and blessed her greatly, and in the school economy where looks trumped all, Claire had market cornered.
The blonde and her friends occupied the back corner of the classroom, talking amongst themselves whenever given the chance. They had taken notice of the strange amulet hanging out of Milo’s coat pocket.
“That thing looks expensive.” One of them predicted.
Claire nodded. “It’s kind of pretty too.”
Another snorted. “That thing? I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it.”
Claire scrunched her face. “Yeah, well, I mean, it just be kind of nice to have ya know?”
The first friend chimed in again. “Bet it could be pawned off for a pretty penny.”
“What the hell is Milo doing with that thing anyway?”
A scheme began to form in Claire’s head. “You know… someone like Milo… considering the way he practically melted in front of Lucy, I bet it would be real easy to get him to give that thing up.”
“No way! It’s probably a family heirloom or something.”
“Watch and learn.” Claire stated with a wink.
–
Class had finally come to an end, and Milo was already trudging towards the next one in his schedule.
“Hey, Milo!” a feminine voice came from behind him.
The teen turned around and saw Claire directly in front of him. He couldn’t believe it, she was easily one of the hottest freshmen in the school. She stood a proud 5’9”, and if she had another small growth spurt could likely become a fashion model.
“Um, hi Claire.” Milo was already flush with embarrassment from the encounter.
Claire held back a giggle and gathered herself. “I just noticed that you have a really nice necklace thing in your coat.”
Milo blinked a few times before remembering the amulet. He reached into his pocket and produced the necklace. “Oh, this thing?” he asked, holding it up.
Claire’s bright green eyes shimmered. “Oooo” she cooed playfully. “I bet that’s a gift for a very lucky lady in your life.” she lied.
Milo blushed. “Oh, no, there’s no ladies in my life.”
Claire closed the distance between them, drawing herself directly into Milo’s personal space. “I bet if you gave that amulet to someone they’d feel awfully special.” she brought her finger up to Milo’s chest, exerting her sexual dominance.
“You really like it that much?”
“Mmm.. yeah, I do.” Claire said with a nod.
“Well, if it’d make you happy I guess you can have it.” he said handing it over to her.
“Aww, really? Thanks Milo!” she chirped before quickly grabbing it. “You’re so sweet!” she added before leaning down slightly to give him a quick peck on the cheek.
The display of affection caused Milo’s blush to deepen considerably. After securing the amulet, Claire decided to try it on. As she placed the pendant around her neck, the gemstone in the middle shone bright green – similar to her eyes – for a moment before returning to its typical color. Simon felt a familiar knot form in his stomach, but merely played the glow off as a trick on his eyes.
The blonde glanced down at the jewelry on her neck and grinned. “Some of the other girls might call it a little tacky, but I like it a lot!”
“Oh, uh, I’m glad!” Milo sputtered out. “So, say, would you like to um… you know, go to the movies or something?”
Claire held back a chuckle and smiled warmly. “Aww, that’s cute Milo, I’ll have to think about it, okay?” Her response was somewhat dismissive. “Anyway, I’m gonna go know, ‘K?” before the boy could react, she had already turned around and walked off to her next class.
Milo stared slack-jawed at the girl as she confidently waltzed away. How could she have so calmly and callously accepted his gift and simply let like that? He then blamed himself for not being more smooth with his pitch. Cursing himself, Milo trudged off to his next class.
What the teen didn’t realize however, was the amulet was indeed effecting Claire in ways he couldn’t have predicted!
You can buy this story here: Buy The Trouble With Magic - Chapter 1!