Zoe rolled her eyes, not realizing the magic power that flowed into her seconds earlier. She stomped back to her room and put on some music at what she considered a respectable volume. Music helped her think and she generally hated the feel of headphones, not that her mom would believe that the dark metal music helped her think.
She was just getting into the flow of her homework when the usual knock on her door occurred accompanied by the usual: "Zoe, I told you to keep the noise down."
"Just leave me alone!" Zoe called back before biting her tongue. That outburst would probably cost her a week of grounding, so she slumped her shoulders and waited for her mom to stroll in and hand out punishment. A minute passed and nothing happened.
Zoe cautiously walked over to her door and cracked it open. Her mom was nowhere to be found. Had she finally decided to give up arguing, or was this some sort of reverse psychology? To test it she turned her stereo up to the level she preferred. After a couple of minutes without interruption she smiled and got back to homework.
Just was there was a loud banging on the wall that separated her room from Jon's. She looked at the wall with disdain. "Shut up and go back to sleep," she told him through the wall. Zoe was surprised when the banging stopped. Still not suspecting anything unusual, she shrugged and went on to finish her math homework.
