Alright, I know some of you are very excited to get to know Parker Halliwell, so we'll get through these reviews quickly so that we can get right into the story…
Prince Halliwell- Hey no problem! I think everyone was glad that her and Kyle got together, especially me!
Paige Marie Halliwell- Um, thanks I guess. I'm not sure where you came from but it's cool to get a new reviewer.
s.halliwell- I know a lot of people were excited about Parker, so I got it up as fast as I could.
The-Cheese-Fairy- And where the hell were you? You didn't even review the last chapter of Patience? How does that work? Lol! Just kidding.
Um, hi. I guess you already know who I am, but if you don't my name is Parker Wyatt Halliwell. My parents are Piper Halliwell who is a Charmed One and Leo Wyatt who is a White Lighter. I know you've already met my cousin Patience, so I won't give you the big explanation about Melinda Warren and the Archers.
I guess you could say that I'm the dorky one in the family. People tell me that that's how my mom was when she was my age and she turned out pretty good, so I guess I shouldn't worry too much. My favorite people in the world are my cousins though. We're really close and we've been through a lot of stuff together. Actually, we're all only a few weeks apart from each other.
My power is of course to control the wind, create wind, make tornadoes, and control the birds. I haven't actually experimented with that one yet, but I'm sure I will eventually. How I use my powers lies in the hands of my Aunt Paige. She's a little weird, kind of like Percy, but she's kind of cool. There are some days when I can't stand her and some days when I love her. My favorite aunt is Aunt Prue though. She's the best! (A/N: Notice a pattern here? Prue is Piper's favorite sister too…)
As for how active I am, I play tennis. It may seem kind of boring, but for the nerds like me, it's fun. Other sports really aren't my strongpoint. It's good to have some diversity in the family though, right? Patience has her cheerleading, Percy has her soccer, and Preston has his bikes and skateboards. I'm also in an excelled math program after school and I'm the spelling bee champion for the entire Bay Area, not to brag or anything.
The one person that I forgot to mention though was Kelsey. She's my girlfriend and she's gorgeous. Don't ask me how I got hooked up with her, it was Patience who introduced us. I'm just glad she did because I love Kelsey to death. She doesn't know about our powers (the only boyfriend or girlfriend who does is Kyle, Patience's boyfriend) but I'm going to tell her someday. Patience got the bright idea to cast a Truth Spell one day and Kelsey was freaked when she found out that we were witches, so I haven't gotten up the courage to tell her again yet. Now that you've gotten enough of the boring background information though, I can start to tell you about one of the many adventures of Parker…
Friday night found me in my room, reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for about the fifth time. I know it's a little stereotypical, but what can I say? It's a good book. I was just at the part where Harry flipped out on his friends again (reminding me of the time that Patience got possessed by the demon and tried to kill my mom) when the phone rang.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hey baby!" Kelsey said cheerfully.
"Hey babe, what's up?" I asked. Kelsey was the only one who could ever make me sound cool.
"Well, I'm really bored and I was just wondering if you wanted to go do something," she said. I heard a beep, signaling that someone else was calling.
"Hold on one minute babe, I got another call coming in," I said. I switched over to the other line.
"Hey P2, you feel like doing something?" Preston asked.
"Um, actually Kelsey's on the other line. She just asked me the same thing," I said.
"Well bring her with! P1, P4, K1, A, L and I are all going to the mall. See if K2 wants to come," Preston offered. For some reason Preston refused to say anyone's full name, so he just used the first initial of their name. If their were more than one, such as in our case, he just put numbers behind them from oldest to youngest. Patience was P1, I was P2, he was P3, and Percy was P4.
"Okay, I'll see if she wants to go," I said, switching the line. "Hey babe, that was Preston. He and my cousins are going to the mall. They want to know if we want to come," I said.
"Sure! Pick me up in ten minutes?" Kelsey asked.
"I'll be there. Bye," I said.
"Bye!" I switched back to Preston. "We're coming," I said.
"Good, see you in a few," he said and hung up. I sighed. The mall wasn't my favorite place in the world. The truth was, I would have been much happier at home reading my book. But I couldn't let Kelsey and all of the others down. I went over to my closet to see what I could wear. The Darth Vader t-shirt I had on at the moment wasn't exactly the best 'hang out with your cousins and girlfriend at the mall' shirt, especially when they were all going to be wearing something better. I decided to wear one of the outfits that Patience and Percy had bought for me on our sixteenth birthday. If anyone knew anything about style, it was those two.
While Patience was head cheerleader and part of the girly girl popular crowd, Percy was captain of the girls' soccer team and headed the sporty kick butt crowd. Preston was in his troublemaker slash skater crowd. As for me, I had the dorky crowd and the more I thought about that the more it made me mad. I didn't know why, it just bugged me.
Twenty minutes later, the eight of us were at the mall looking around. While Preston and Leah were in Hot Topic and Patience, Percy, their boyfriends and Kelsey were in stores like Aéropostale and Hollister, I snuck my way into the Borders to see if there were any books I wanted to read. As cool as Harry Potter was, I needed something new. Although, Harry Potter in French would be a new adventure…
"Hey," Kelsey whispered in my ear as she wrapped her arms around me. I grinned.
"Hi," I said.
"What are you doing in here all by yourself?" she asked.
"Oh, just being my usual nerdy self," I said. Kelsey laughed.
"You're not a nerd baby! You're the quiet, smart, sexy type; not the creepy, nerdy, cyber sex, stalker type," she said. I smiled. That made me feel a little bit better, something she had a way of doing.
"Did you find anything good?" I asked as we sat down at one of the tables in the coffee shop, the others joining us.
"Totally! These outfits are so hot. I can't wait to wear them to school," Patience said happily. The one thing in the world that girl loved more than being a popular cheerleader with a hot boyfriend was shopping. She was Prudence Halliwell's daughter in a nutshell.
"I got some awesome jeans and a halter top from Aéro," Percy said, holding them up.
"I got the cutest skirt from Hollister," Patience said.
"Leah and I got some good stuff from Pac Sun and Hot Topic," Preston said. If the four of us cousins were identical, you would be able to tell us apart from what clothing company we were wearing. Patience was almost always in something from Hollister or AE, Percy always sported some kind of Aéropostale gear, Preston usually had on Element or something else that he got from Pac Sun or Hot Topic, and I was wearing whatever comic book shirts I could find.
"I got some good stuff from AE," Kelsey said, pulling it out to show it to me. It was definitely good.
"Wow, I can't wait to see that on you," I said with a grin. Kelsey put on a look of mock horror.
"Parker Halliwell! I can't believe you just said that," she said. I laughed. I had noticed that Kyle and Atli didn't get anything. That was a surprise considering that their entire wardrobes were made up of stuff that Patience and Percy bought them whenever they went to the mall, which was in almost every free minute they had.
Later that night, I lay in bed thinking about what Kelsey had said. She told me that I was quiet, smart, and sexy; all of the things that I considered myself to lack (except maybe the quiet part, because I didn't talk a whole lot). I just didn't know what it was about me that made me so different then the others. What I wouldn't give just to have one day in Patience's shoes to know what it was like to be über popular. I fell asleep to these thoughts, causing me to have dreams about them, where I actually was popular. It felt great.
I woke up the next morning to find out that I was just me again. I wished that the dream I had could come true and that when I arrived at school that morning, there would be people actually waiting to say hi to me. Then it hit me: a spell. I knew that personal gain was bad and that my mom would kill me if I used it. Visions of Patience's screw up with a personal gain spell flooded my head, but I pushed them aside. Today would be a day like no other. Today, I would be popular.
"Make my darkest wish come true. Make me the most popular kid in school. From now until it's now again, then put things back to where they began," I chanted. I felt a warm glow pass through me, signaling that it had worked. I walked over to my closet to pick out something to wear to find that all of my clothes had been replaced. Instead of my usual Darth Vader and Superman shirts, there were clothes from Aéro and Hollister, places that I never shopped. The spell had definitely worked. I threw something on, just going by what I had seen Kyle and Atli wearing and walked out the door to catch a ride with Patience.
"Hey Park, you ready for school?" Patience asked. I nodded, unsure if it had worked on my cousins. When we got to school, I walked up to my locker and was instantly surrounded by cheerleaders and guys from the football team.
"Hey baby, we still on for the movies?" Missy Harding asked. Baby? Movies?
"Um, yeah," I said.
"Great!" she said, giving me a kiss. What was that? Where was Kelsey? I saw her making her way to homeroom. "Uh, I'll catch up with you guys later," I said, pushing through and running up to her. "Hey babe."
"Ugh, you wish," Kelsey replied.
"What?" I asked, very confused.
"I'm not your babe. What's wrong, Missy not putting out anymore? Get lost, Parker," Kelsey said, disgusted.
"Wait, so we don't go out?" I asked.
"Ha! That's funny," Kelsey laughed, pushing my out of her way. I watched her walk into homeroom, hurt and confused. Not only had I made myself popular, I had pushed myself into an alternate reality where Missy Harding was my girlfriend and Kelsey hated me. The spell was on for twenty-four hours though, so I might as well make the most of it.
For the rest of that day I got to know exactly what it took to be popular. I hung out with Patience and Kyle a lot, had Missy all over me, had to learn how to be quick and smooth with my words, and had to catch Kelsey giving me disgusted glances whenever she got the chance. It wasn't too bad, actually. I mean, I could get Kelsey to like me, right? I could just show her the real me, the one that my Kelsey fell in love with.
I found out that my home life was different too. When I got home, I realized that it was my night with Aunt Paige, except that Aunt Paige never came. Finally, she orbed in, giving me a confused look.
"Aunt Paige, you're late," I said.
"Late for what?" she asked.
"For our lesson. Tonight's my lesson night. Remember?" I asked.
"You're lessons? You quit those a long time ago. You all did," Paige said, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh," I said.
"You don't remember?" Paige asked.
"Um, yeah, I do," I said.
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, thanks. I'll see you later, okay," I said.
"Okay," Paige said. I walked home, going straight to bed. I was searching for The Army of Witches book. For some reason I really wanted to read it. It was my week to have it. The four of us had decided that since we all liked to read it so much, we would each have a certain week in the month to have it. I couldn't find it though. It wasn't in my room. It wasn't anywhere. I sighed and fell asleep. In the morning, this would all be over and things could go back to normal.
When I woke up and went to my closet I expected to see my normal clothes, but I found the same 'popular' clothes as yesterday. Apparently, the spell hadn't worn off like I had made it to. Something was wrong and it smelled like personal gain. I went to school and had the same treatment. All the guys wanted me to hang out with them and all the girls wanted me to go out with them. It was crazy. I couldn't even go to the bathroom in peace.
"Hey Parker," Missy said, batting her eyebrows at me as I tried to sneak into the bathroom.
"Hey Missy," I said.
"How come you didn't come to get me last night?" Missy asked. I cringed. I had completely forgot.
"Yeah, about that, I don't think we should see each other anymore," I said.
"What? Parker, that's not funny," Missy said.
"I know, it wasn't meant to be. You're just not my kind of girl," I said.
"I can't believe you! You're disgusting!" she said, turning to walk away. Then she turned back. "Exactly who is your type of girl?"
"Kelsey Thompson," I said quietly. Missy scoffed and walked off. I felt bad, but somehow I knew that Missy wouldn't sweat it. She thought of my alternate reality self as nothing more than a status booster. I decided that if I were ever going to try to get Kelsey for myself in this reality, I would have to start now. That way Missy wouldn't try to get me back right away. I wasn't sure if my other self even wanted Kelsey, but once I got back to my own world and he saw how great she was, he wouldn't mind me changing things around a little.
I knocked on Kelsey's door nervously, hoping that she wouldn't be too mad. I knew she didn't like me here, but I was hoping that I could change that. The door slowly opened and Kelsey appeared. She seemed surprised.
"Parker?" she asked.
"Uh, hi Kelsey," I said.
"What do you want?" Kelsey asked, instantly going on the defensive.
"Listen, I know you don't like me and I probably haven't given you any reason to, but I like you. I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go for a walk, maybe get to know the other me. There's a side that you haven't seen and I think you might like it if you'll just give me the chance to show it to you," I said. Kelsey looked thoughtful, but I could see her letting her guard down.
"I guess, but if you try anything..." she warned. I put my hands up.
"I won't, I promise," I said. Kelsey smiled and walked out the door. We walked for a while all through Golden Gate Park. We talked about normal things like school and friends and how much of a jerk I was. I was ashamed to know that I could be so horrible in a different life. I epitomized the cruelty of popular kids. Finally, we took a seat under a big willow tree in the park. To me, it was our spot. It was where my Kelsey and I always went to be alone.
"You know, when you first asked me on a walk I've got to say I was pretty apprehensive. I thought you were going to try to seduce me or something, but you were nothing but sweet. You were right, there is a side to you that I've never seen. I just wish you would show it more often," Kelsey said.
"I know and I'm truly sorry. I guess being popular made me a bad person. I just wanted to be like everyone else. I guess you've got to be cruel to get there," I said.
"Popularity isn't what you seem to think it is then, Parker Halliwell. Being popular doesn't mean that you have to hang out with a certain group of kids. It means that you have a certain group of kids that like you for you, not who you pretend to be. Those kids you hang out with are popular to themselves. Just like I'm popular to my kids and the dorks are popular to the dorks. The mean kids hang out with the mean kids and people only think they're popular because they're well known for being mean. As long as you have friends and family, you're popular," Kelsey explained. I smiled. Apparently there were things that I didn't know about Kelsey. I considered her to be one of the popular kids at our school, but talking to her just made me realize why I had asked her out in the first place.
"You know, I think there's a world out there where I was never a jerk to you and you fell in love with me. A world where I'm even considered a dork," I said with a grin, referring to my world. Kelsey grinned back.
"I wouldn't care if you were the dorkies, most ugly kid in the world, as long as you were sweet," Kelsey said.
"Okay, well I would go with dorky, but ugly?" I asked, putting on a look of mock hurt.
"I didn't mean now. You're actually really sexy. Why else do you think Missy Harding would go out with you?" Kelsey asked.
"Well that doesn't really matter because she's not anymore," I said. Kelsey gasped.
"You broke up with her? Oh there's going to be some pissed off cheerleaders tomorrow... and some extraordinarily happy ones. You're going to have girls all over you trying to get you to go out with them," she said.
"Well I won't. There's only one girl I want and that's you," I said firmly, staring into her hazel eyes. She leaned in and kissed me softly.
"I don't think that'll be a problem," she whispered, sending a shiver through my spine. I kissed her again.
"I guess I should get you home. I know how your mom gets when you're out too late," I slipped. Kelsey raised her eyebrow. "Well, I mean I've heard from some of your friends like Patience," I covered quickly. Kelsey nodded. We got up and walked to her house hand in hand. When we got to the front porch, I gave her a hug.
"I had a great time tonight, Parker, so thanks," she said.
"Hey, anytime," I grinned. I gave her another kiss and stood by as she was ready to go in the house. She turned around to give me one last glance, but suddenly her eyes went wide. I raised my eyebrow. Kelsey looked down at her stomach and I followed her eyes to see a big red blood stain steadily growing on her white tank top. I caught her as she fell to the ground.
"Shh, it's okay. We'll get you better," I promised as I looked around. Missy Harding stepped out from behind a bush with a silenced 16mm in her hands. She looked positively crazy.
"If I can't be with you, nobody can," she raged. I put out my hand to try to blow her away with a gust of wind, but nothing happened. I tried to orb, but I couldn't.
"Dad!" I yelled. My dad orbed in beside us. "Get us out of here," I said. He orbed us to the manor.
"What happened?" my mom asked. I broke up with Missy today because I decided that I wanted to go out with Kelsey. I took her for a walk and when we got back to her house, Missy came out of nowhere and shot her. I tried to use my power, but I couldn't. Why couldn't I use my power?" I asked, as Dad healed Kelsey.
"You and your cousins gave up on your powers, your destinies. Remember?" Mom asked.
"We what? Okay, I guess now is as good a time as ever to tell you that I'm not your Parker. Well, I am I guess, but I'm from a different reality. Yesterday morning I cast a spell to make myself popular and I ended up here. Which means that your Parker is in my reality," I said.
"What? What! You may not be my son, but I know my other self taught you better than that! Now look, you got this poor girl shot! Personal gain will bite you in the ass every time!" Mom yelled.
"What are you guys?" Kelsey asked.
"We're witches. Good witches of course, but witches all the same. We have magical powers. Don't believe us? Just watch," Mom said, blowing up a flowerpot. Kelsey's eyes went wide.
"You're witches?" she asked in disbelief.
"It's true and I'm sorry I haven't told you. Although, I guess my other self isn't, but that's why I've been such a jerk and then all of the sudden nice. I'm not the Parker you know, he's in my world, but I won't let him screw things up again. If you're freaked I understand, but give him a chance. He's not bad. He has the potential to be the really sweet guy that you've been looking for, that you met tonight," I said. Kelsey nodded.
"Yeah. I think I need to go home though. Tonight has been a little too much. I'll see you around. Uh, could you take me home like you brought us here? I don't want to chance meeting Missy again," Kelsey said. Dad nodded and orbed her home. I grinned that she was so open to this. Maybe it was a sign that my Kelsey would be okay with it.
"Yeah, could you tell Uncle Andy to arrest Missy Harding?" I asked my mom. She nodded.
"Let's get you home now," she said.
"Okay, but I have something I want to do first," I said. I walked upstairs and sat down at my desk. I pulled out a piece of paper and started writing.
Dear Parker,
I know you're probably wondering how you ended up in an alternate reality. It was my fault. I cast a spell to see what it would be like to be popular and I ended up in your world. You've got a great life here, but you've screwed some stuff up. You're a jerk, as I understand it. I've broken up with Missy and she'll probably be in jail when you get back. She's not good for you anyways. I did however hook you up with Kelsey Thompson. She's a sweet girl. Don't screw things up with her. She's smart and beautiful and she wants someone who will be nice, not screw her and lose her. Keep her; she's a good pick. Also, I know you and the others have given up your powers. You should try to get them back. You'll do great things with them someday. Kelsey knows that you're a witch. I'm sorry if I've screwed things up for you, but I certainly hope I've helped fix them.
Sincerely,
Your alternate reality self- ParkerI left the letter on his desk where he would find it. I hoped that maybe he would make his life a little less screwed. I walked back down to the living room to find my mom getting ready to send me home. She set up a circle of candles and lit them.
"I hope you don't ever try to do this again," she said. I grinned.
"I won't, Mom," I said.
"Tell the other me I said hi," she said. I nodded, giving her a hug. I stepped into the circle. "The spell is completed. It's no longer needed. Take him back to the world where he's from. Take him back to his real dad and mum." I felt the warm glow pass through me again and opened my eyes to find myself in the same place, except that no one was around me.
"Mom?" I called. My mom came in from the kitchen.
"Yeah honey?" she asked. I grinned and ran over to give her a hug. Then I tried my powers. I found that they worked fine.
"What are you doing?" Mom asked.
"Well, you're going to be really mad, but I guess I'll tell you," I said, taking her into the kitchen. I told her everything that happened. She was mad, but she was glad that I was home okay. I found out when I called Kelsey that my other self had been a jerk to her. I guess I would have to make up for that. I had Kelsey meet me under the willow tree so that we could talk.
"So I know you're mad at me," I started.
"Mad? I'm not mad. I'm pissed," she said.
"And could you tell me exactly what it was that I did?" I asked.
"Well let's see... first you blew me off, then I find you macking with Missy Harding, then you try to get in my pants," Kelsey said angrily. I winced. My alternate self was a jerk.
"Okay, that is bad. But listen, it wasn't me. It was me from an alternate reality; one where I'm cool and popular and I do or did go out with Missy Harding. I know it sounds crazy, but there's an explanation for it. See, I'm a witch. I'm a good witch. My whole family is. My mom and my aunts are the Charmed Ones and my cousins and I are the Archers. We're destined to be on the side of good in the final battle between good and evil. Please, Kelsey you have to believe me," I pleaded. Kelsey just stared at me.
"I do," she whispered. I sighed in relief.
"I'm sorry for whatever my alternate self did, but I was just sick of being an unpopular nerd that I wanted to see what it was like to be popular. So I cast a spell and it sent me to an alternate reality. But I wasn't with you and it killed me, so I broke up with Missy and showed you the real me and you liked it and that's when I realized that I didn't have to be popular to be with you. You liked me just the way I was," I said. Kelsey smiled.
"Of course dummy! If I didn't like you, I wouldn't still be with you. And you don't need to hang out with those jerks to be popular. You have me and your cousins and you family. That's what makes you popular, not being mean and wearing nice clothes," Kelsey said. I grinned.
"You said that in the other reality too," I said.
"Well then it must be true," Kelsey said with a grin.
"So you aren't freaked about me being a witch?" I asked. Kelsey sighed.
"A little bit. It's kind of weird, but to be honest with you I've always suspected that there was more out there. I mean, all of the weird things that happen around here like those kids dying and no one could find the killers," Kelsey said.
"Yeah, that was a demon that Patience killed," I said.
"See, things like that make me think that there really is stuff out there. I guess there is. I'm just glad that you're fighting it and not a part of it," Kelsey said. I nodded.
"I'm glad that you're okay with this because I can't do it without you," I said. Kelsey leaned in and kissed me softly, just like she did in the alternate reality. She pulled away and I wrapped my arms around her and we sat there, watching the sunset. I felt so much better now that Kelsey knew, and now that I knew that she liked me as I was. Of course, a few changes wouldn't hurt...
There you go, the first chapter of Parker. Can you tell how different from Patience he is? I tried to make that difference in my writing just by little thinks, like how much he says 'um' or 'I guess' to show how insecure he is and how he never cussed to show how he was less daring than Patience. Also, I know a lot of you are across the pond in England and Scotland and stuff, so I don't know if they have stores like Hollister and Aéropostale, but they're really hot stores in the states. Also, you'll all want to READ THIS: After I've finished this story, I'm going to go on hiatus from my fan fictions to devote some time to the novel that I'm writing because I'm falling behind, but after the summer's over I'm going to start back up with Preston's story. So I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I feel it's necessary.
Aut