QK Agent Round 1: World on a String, MG Fantasy

Entry Nickname: World on a String
Title: The Day I Ruled the World
Word Count: 57,000
Genre: MG Fantasy

Query:

Twelve-year-old Teddy Bridwell thinks her parents are great. They’re also wrong. She shouldn’t have to wait until she turns thirteen to start learning magic, so she practices in secret. That way, they don’t have to worry, and she doesn't have to get in trouble.

Until she gets caught, of course. Then she’s in all kinds of trouble. She’s grounded and stuck doing inventory on the junk Dad collects for his business. That’s where she finds the barrette. It looks ordinary, but it feels like magic, and when Teddy holds it, she can make people do anything she tells them. For the first time in her life, she’s the one with the power.

Unfortunately, the power Teddy uses to make her Dad teach her magic could do mega-damage in the wrong hands. Those hands belong to a fanatic who wants to end all the pain and misery in the world by turning everyone in the galaxy into his puppets. To stop him, Teddy has to destroy the barrette. Until she does, her stubbornness is the only thing standing between humanity and slavery, which, if humanity knew, they probably wouldn’t find too comforting.

First 250 words:

Spying is rude, and I would never, ever do it. Not without a good reason anyway, like needing to know if my parents suspected I'd been practicing spells in secret.

For Snooper's Delight, I needed a mirror, some magic, and a little privacy. Good thing I had my own bedroom, so I wouldn’t be interrupted by my bossy older sisters or nosy younger brothers.

I settled cross-legged on my bed, tugged on my pajama shorts to de-wedgie them, and balanced the mirror on my knee.

At six o’clock on a Saturday morning, Mom and Dad would be in the kitchen, eating breakfast alone and talking about stuff they didn’t want us to hear. That was the scene I had to picture to work the spell—the counter along the back wall and the big dining table surrounded by chairs. When the mental image was as clear as I could make it, I slid it into the mirror to replace the reflection. My brain relaxed, and I opened my eyes. There it was, a perfect picture of my parents with plates of eggs and glasses of juice set out on the table in front of them. I could practically smell the butter on the toast.

I had one second to enjoy my success before the side-effects hit me, the slam of crazy emotions that came with every spell. This time it was a wave of what-the-heck-does-this-have-to-do-with-anything sadness. Mean things people said to me years ago and disappointments I’d forgotten all about rolled in to drown me.