Blue Moon (12 page)

surprise for you tonight. This afternoon I had a visit from another young woman who asked if she could

take part in one of our New Words nights. I was going to wait until next month to feature her, but I was

so impressed with what she did that I didn’t want to wait to introduce her to you. So if you will, please

give a Big Mouth welcome to our final performer—Freya.”

“Freya?” Cooper said to the stage manager. “Who’s Freya?”

“Beats me,” the woman answered. “Sam just told me about her a few minutes ago.”

Cooper watched as someone emerged from the curtains at the opposite side of the stage. When she saw

who it was her mouth dropped open in shock.

“Annie?” she said.

“Someone you know?” asked the stage manager.

“Well, I thought I did,” Cooper replied.

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She stared at Annie as she walked to the microphone. What was going on? Why was she calling herself

Freya? What was she doing? Annie had never performed anything in her life. But there she was, standing

on the stage where only moments before Cooper had been standing. All Cooper could do was watch

and wait to see what her friend was up to.

Annie cleared her throat and began speaking. “In the velvet of the morning I see them come, carried in

the arms of Valkyries. Stained with blood and covered in the dirt of battle, they have become children,

sleeping without dreams.”

Annie’s voice sounded strange, almost unearthly. Cooper had never heard her speak that way. And she

certainly had never heard Annie recite any kind of poetry or performance piece. But there she was, her

hand wrapped around the microphone as she spoke.

“I go to them and wipe their brows with my golden hair,” she continued. “I sing to them of summer and

of love among the flowers.”

Who does she think she is?
Cooper wondered as she listened to Annie.
This sounds like a bad Stevie

Nicks song.

“When they open their eyes and look at me I know they see the faces of the ones they long to kiss. But

when they speak they call not their names but mine. Freya. And then I take them by the hands and lead

them into the halls of rest.”

Annie finished. Cooper was stunned. Her piece had been really bad, like something written by a lovesick

teenage girl after reading too many fairy tales. She hoped that Annie wasn’t too embarrassed.

But then she was even more surprised to hear the audience erupt into thunderous applause. What were

they thinking? Annie’s stuff had been awful. But there they were, clapping like mad for her. It was like

she’d cast some bizarre spell over them to make them think it was good.

“Thank you,” Annie said, as if she’d just performed some amazing song or something. “Thank you so

much.”

Cooper watched as her friend left the stage. This time she walked through the curtains on Cooper’s side

of the stage.

“Hey,” Annie said when she saw Cooper. “What did you think?”

Cooper looked at her. Should she say something? She still wasn’t sure what had happened. All she

knew was that Annie had totally stolen the show. Nobody was going to talk about Cooper’s

performance. She was sure of that. They were all going to talk about Freya and how good she’d been.

“That was something else,” Cooper said. “Really something else.”

Annie smiled. “I hope you don’t mind me doing it,” she said. “I just thought it would be fun. I didn’t

know Sam would put me on tonight.”

Before Cooper could say anything Sam came over to them. “That was beautiful,” she said. “I loved how

you combined traditional poetry with more modern ideas. I was wondering if you’d like to do another

show next month.”

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“Sure,” Annie said. “That would be great.”

“I’ll put you down, then,” Sam said, smiling. “Oh, and Cooper, great work, too. Thanks a lot for

coming.”

Sam walked away. Cooper stared after her. Wasn’t Sam going to ask her to be in another show, too?

How could she ask Annie and not her? She had been a billion times better than Annie—or Freya—had

been.

She turned to say something to Annie but saw that she was surrounded by a group of people, all of

whom were telling her how great she’d been. Annie was smiling and laughing, clearly reveling in the

attention.

Cooper turned and walked back to the dressing rooms. She grabbed her bag and headed for the back

door. She didn’t know what Annie was up to, but she sure wasn’t going to wait around to find out.

CHAPTER 12

“I’m telling you, it was just like that old Bette Davis movie
All About Eve,
” Cooper said to Kate.

“Sorry,” Kate answered. “Never saw it.”

“Bette Davis plays this actress who takes a young girl she thinks is a fan under her wing. Only the girl

turns out to be this scheming wanna-be actress who ends up sabotaging Bette Davis’s career and taking

over a part meant for her,” explained Cooper, sounding very bitter.

“It doesn’t sound like Annie did anything quite that bad,” said Kate. She was interested in what Cooper

was saying, but she was also trying to concentrate on counting how many little paper cups of nuts and

candies she’d put together. She was helping make the table favors for the wedding, and she was growing

impatient with trying to make sure there were equal numbers of white-chocolate-coated almonds and

candied violets in each one. Holding the phone against her shoulder was making it all that much harder.

“Oh, no,” Cooper replied sarcastically. “She only stole the show and upstaged me with that weird poem

about dead soldiers or whatever it was.”

“I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it,” said Kate. “I bet she just wanted to feel like she was part of

the action.”

“And what’s with calling herself Freya?” Cooper snapped, ignoring Kate. “Is it supposed to be like

Cher or Madonna or Enya or something? I don’t get it. Why couldn’t she be just plain old Annie?”

“Have you talked to her about this?” Kate asked, sighing. She’d lost count of how many candied violets

she’d used, and now she was afraid she was going to run out.

“No,” answered Cooper. “I left while she was greeting her adoring fans. I haven’t talked to her since

then. She called this morning but I had my mother tell her I was out.”

“I think you need to talk to her about this and not to me,” said Kate. “I don’t know why she did it any

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more than you do.”

“I just think something is up,” Cooper said. “You said she acted really weird around your mother.”

“True,” Kate said, adding almonds to some cups that looked bare.

“And there’s the whole thing with the look and the attitude and the boyfriend,” added Cooper.

“Oh, tell me about the boyfriend,” Kate said, suddenly becoming interested again.

“He’s okay,” Cooper admitted. “I didn’t actually talk to him. But he looks nice.”

“What does he look like?” Kate asked.

“I don’t know,” said Cooper. “Tall. Light brownish hair. Two eyes. A nose. He looks like a guy.”

Kate groaned. “You are so not helpful sometimes,” she said.

“Let’s get back to Annie,” Cooper replied. “Do you think she’s done some kind of a spell? You know,

to make herself more popular or something?”

“Annie?” Kate answered. “She wouldn’t do that. She knows what would happen if she tried to do a

spell like that.”

“I know she
knows
what would happen,” said Cooper. “But do you think maybe she decided to risk it

anyway?”

“That’s really doubtful,” Kate told her. “But if it makes you feel any better, we can talk to her tonight

and ask her in person. We’re supposed to meet her at six to go rollerblading. You can come along.”

“Rollerblading?” Cooper said. “Since when do you rollerblade?”

“Since when do I not? My dad owns a sporting goods store! Besides, this was Annie’s idea,” Kate said.

“It sounds fun. We’re going to the park and Annie’s going to rent blades at that place next to it.”

“I told you something weird has happened to her,” said Cooper.

“Just come with us,” Kate told her.

“Okay,” Cooper said doubtfully. “But I’ll bet good money she’s done something.”

“Fine,” said Kate. “If she has, then I’ll owe you twenty bucks. But my money says that there’s a

perfectly good explanation for all of this.”

“You’re on,” Cooper told her. “I’ll see you tonight, then. We can play good cop, bad cop.”

Kate hung up and returned to filling baskets. She’d totally lost count, and now she was just tossing

candied violets and nuts randomly into the cups.

“How’s it going?” her mother asked as she came into the kitchen with an armload of bags.

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“Fine, I think,” Kate replied. “I’ll just be glad when this is over.”

“Tell me about it,” said her mother as she set the bags on the counter. “Three days until this wedding,

and I still don’t have enough people to help serve. Four of the ones I hired called today to say they

couldn’t make it.”

“What do they have to do?” asked Kate.

“Just stand at the tables and make sure all the plates are kept filled,” her mother told her. “Oh, and one

or two of them will have to walk around with trays of hors d’oeuvres.”

“That sounds easy enough,” said Kate. “I can do that.”

“That still leaves me at least three people short,” Mrs. Morgan said. “As if I don’t have enough to deal

with right now.”

“I have a suggestion,” said Kate hesitantly.

“What’s that?” asked her mother.

“How about if I ask Cooper and Annie to help out?” said Kate.

Her mother paused. Kate knew that she was weighing her reservations about Kate’s friends against her

need to have people to help out at the wedding. Kate took the opportunity to press her point. “How

difficult can it be to carry trays?” she said. “They’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know,” her mother said. “This is a
really
big deal for me. It all has to go perfectly.”

“I promise they’ll be on their best behavior,” Kate told her, trying to look as earnest as possible.

Her mother looked back at her for a long time, an expression of uncertainty on her face. “What color is

Cooper’s hair right now?” she asked. “I can’t have a green-or pink-or blue-haired server.”

Kate had to think for a minute. “Black,” she said.

Mrs. Morgan sighed. “Okay,” she said. “But tell them they have to wear black. And nothing too short.

Especially Annie.”

“Will do,” said Kate happily. She was pleased that her mother was letting her and her friends help out. It

would give her a chance to see that they really were normal after all. Plus it would show her friends that

she wasn’t ashamed of them. As she went back to work she congratulated herself on having come up

with such a brilliant idea.

Now, if you could just find a way to make Tyler a bigger part of your life you’d be all set,
she told

herself. It lessened her excitement somewhat to think about that, but it was something she was going to

have to deal with, and soon. Ever since their talk at the museum she had been going over and over the

conversation in her head. Tyler had been right; he could never fully be her boyfriend until she didn’t have

to worry about hiding who he was—and who she was—from her family.

They had talked several times since Sunday, but she hadn’t seen him again. He had made it clear that

while he loved her he couldn’t handle having to feel like she was afraid of her family’s knowing too much

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about him. She’d told him that she would do something about that, just as she’d told her friends the same

thing. But every time she looked at her mother and thought about beginning a conversation about

witchcraft she froze up. She just didn’t know how to do it.

Well, this is a start,
she told herself as she finished up the last of the favors. If everything went well at the

wedding, her mother would be in a good mood and maybe Kate could bring up the subject of her

involvement in the Wicca study group. Besides, her mom would be pleased with how well Annie and

Cooper behaved, and that would help. She couldn’t wait to meet them that evening and tell them the

good news.

***

At six o’clock Kate was seated on the bench in front of the rollerblade rental place. She was fastening

her blades while Annie removed her shoes and put her rentals on.

“I bet Cooper bails,” Annie said as she strapped on a pair of elbow pads. “This is so totally
not
her

thing.”

“I think she’ll be here,” Kate said. “She seemed really into it, and I know she wants to see you.”

“I don’t know why she ran away the other night,” said Annie. “Everyone was hoping she’d come to the

party afterward.”

“I think she needed to get home,” Kate said. Was it really possible that Annie didn’t know she’d

offended Cooper? That seemed unlikely. But she didn’t seem at all upset or worried about what had

happened at Big Mouth.
I bet Cooper really was blowing it all out of proportion,
Kate thought.

“I can’t wait for you to meet Brian,” Annie said, continuing to chatter on happily.

“I can’t wait to meet him either,” Kate replied. “I hear he’s cute.”

“Did Cooper say that?” asked Annie, smiling. “Well, he is. He’s like a cross between Dawson and

Mulder.”

Kate laughed at how happy Annie sounded. She really was glad to see her friend so excited about life.

But she also had to agree with Cooper that it seemed odd that while Annie’s life was coming together

theirs seemed to be unraveling.

As she was thinking about it she saw someone come flying by on blades, arms waving around before

almost colliding with a nearby tree. When the skater finally stopped and turned around Kate saw that it

was Cooper, all done up in a helmet and pads.

“I thought I’d get here a little early and get some practice in before you two showed up,” Cooper said,

clomping over to the bench. “I think I’m getting the hang of it.”

She fell, her arms flailing. Kate and Annie reached out and grabbed her before she went over backward.

“Or maybe not,” Cooper said, righting herself.

“We’ll go slow,” said Kate.

They skated over to the window, where she and Annie handed the attendant their shoes. Then they

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began to roll along the paved path that ran through the park. There were a number of other skaters, as

well as joggers, dog walkers, and people just hanging out enjoying the beautiful August evening.

“Just take it easy,” Kate said to Cooper as they skated. “Don’t try to force the skates to do anything or

you’ll end up on the ground.”

“All I want them to do is keep going forward,” said Cooper as she narrowly escaped running into a

couple who were holding hands.

“So, how are things with T.J.?” Annie asked, gliding along easily. “I didn’t see him at Big Mouth the

other night.”

“He was boycotting,” said Cooper. “I haven’t talked to him, so I don’t know how he is.”

“You two should make up,” Annie said, as if she’d given the subject a lot of thought. “You’re good for

each other.”

Cooper snorted. “Tell him that,” she said.

“I hear you brought the house down, Annie,” Kate said. “Or should I say Freya?”

Annie laughed. “I know that sounds ridiculous,” she said. “But I wanted to surprise Cooper, and that

was the first name that popped into my head.”

“I had no idea you were interested in performance art,” Kate remarked, trying to get the conversation

headed in the right direction.

“I didn’t know either,” Annie replied. “It just sort of came to me the day of the show, and I thought I’d

see what happened. I think it went really well, don’t you, Cooper?”

Cooper didn’t say anything for a moment. When she finally spoke she said, “Actually, Annie, I thought it

was a little strange.”

Kate could see the look of confusion on Annie’s face. She knew Cooper was doing her best not to turn

the conversation into an argument, but she also knew that Cooper wasn’t always the most tactful person

in the universe.

“Cooper means we’re a little curious about everything that’s been happening to you lately.”

“What do you mean?” Annie asked.

“Well,” Kate said, “we were just wondering if maybe you happened to do anything in particular to

induce these changes.”

“I don’t get it,” said Annie.

“Have you done any spells or anything?” Cooper asked bluntly, sounding exasperated.

Annie laughed. “Spells? No, of course not. You know I’d tell you if I did.”

“We know,” Kate told her. “We’re just asking.”

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“Do you guys think I did some kind of spell to get Brian?” Annie asked. “Because I didn’t.”

“It’s not just Brian,” said Cooper, swerving shakily around a rottweiler that was chasing a ball across the

path. “It’s the new look and the sudden interest in spoken word performances.”

“And slapping Sherrie,” Kate added. “It all seems to have happened at once, and we were just curious if

maybe you’d had a little, you know, magical help.”

“I assure you it’s all me,” Annie said. “I don’t really know what happened. I just decided to change the

way I look at things, that’s all. I thought you guys would be happy for me.”

“We are,” said Kate. “Really. Aren’t we, Cooper?”

When Cooper didn’t respond, Kate repeated herself. “Aren’t we, Cooper?”

“Right,” Cooper said. “Really happy.”

“You don’t sound happy,” said Annie.