Witch (11 page)

When the bus pulled up at school Bryce was standing out the front waiting for me. I pulled my hair over my eyes to mask how happy I was to see him. But he didn't even try to hide the smile that lit up his face when he saw me, and my heart leapt and my legs started to feel shaky as I stopped in front of him. I worried that the tight T-shirt was too much.

‘Vania, you are not going to believe this,' he said in an excited rush. ‘I spoke to a ghost last night!'

I pulled myself together, relieved but also a bit disappointed; I guess I'd been hoping that he would comment on my T-shirt, even though if he had I would have just dismissed him. I knew I was a mess of contradictions.

I fiddled with the shoulder strap on my backpack. ‘Actually, I do believe you,' I said. ‘Was it your great-grandmother?'

‘No. It was someone I didn't know. I had been ghost-calling—'

‘Ghost-calling? What on earth is that?' I interrupted.

‘Um, you stare at one spot and make your mind really still and then when you are totally focused you say inside your head, “Is there anyone out there who wants to speak to me?” Well, I had been ghost-calling for ages, over an hour at least, and I was tired and actually starting to fall asleep when I realised someone was standing at the foot of my bed. A man.'

‘Argh!' I squealed. ‘You're freaking me out. Did he say anything?'

‘Not at first— Oh, I'm sorry . . .' Bryce's voice trailed away, and I felt a tap on my shoulder.

‘Vania!'

Matt Rock was standing there, all spiky hair, blue eyes, brown skin and . . . red roses!

I looked back to Bryce, but he wasn't saying anything. It was his turn to look shocked.

‘I hope you like these,' Matt said.

‘Umm, thanks,' I replied, taking the roses.

‘I'm sorry I didn't see you on the bus this morning,' he said. ‘I got up early to find these for you. See you on the bus this afternoon?' He was smiling, but his eyes looked a little glazed, like he wasn't quite all there. I figured I could stop wondering whether the spell had worked.

I glanced back at Bryce nervously, but he'd turned away.

‘Sure,' I said to Matt. ‘See you later.'

Matt smiled and practically skipped away towards the senior hall.

Cassidy Walters was standing on our school steps staring at me. She obviously couldn't believe what she'd just witnessed. I felt a tingle of pleasure. Her horror alone would make the whole thing worthwhile.

I shrugged and clasped the flowers to my chest, smiling in a way that I hoped was a mixture of innocence and surprise. No doubt the entire school would be talking about this for the rest of the day: Matt Rock giving Fish Lips a bunch of red roses!

I felt victorious until I saw the angry look on Bryce's face. This wasn't supposed to happen! I wanted Bryce to be jealous, not angry. He shook his head and walked away.

Well, it had definitely worked, but it looked like this love spell had got off to a rocky start.

And Bryce was nowhere to be found at lunchtime.

‘Vania!' Amelia squealed as soon as she got to our table in the cafeteria. ‘Everyone's talking about Matt giving you roses. Do you like him, too?' She was tripping over herself with excitement.

I looked at her carefully. Surely their psychic ability would tell the twins I'd cast a spell to make this happen? But no, she and Alyssa seemed completely clueless. Maybe when it came to enchanted situations their psychic powers didn't apply? I glanced at Dean, but he was burrowing into a meatball sandwich and wasn't saying a word, just as we'd agreed. I had to keep up the charade, too.

‘Well, you know I catch the same bus as Matt now, and we've gotten to know each other recently,' I said casually.

‘He is so hot,' Alyssa gushed, ‘almost hotter than Bryce. It's so exciting that a senior likes you! Are you going to introduce him to your parents?'

‘Hey, slow down.' I laughed. Was everyone coming under the power of this spell and getting carried away with it? ‘It's very early days.'

‘Wow, you're so strong to be able to resist Bryce and now Matt,' Amelia said admiringly.

‘I don't know about resisting Bryce.' I shrugged. ‘He doesn't like me in that way.'

‘Well, we thought he did,' the twins said.

‘But now that you have Matt you don't need him,' Dean spoke up between mouthfuls.

I glared at him. It was time to change the subject.

‘Speaking of Bryce, he was telling me he saw a ghost last night,' I said brightly.

‘Yeah, he told us, too,' Amelia said. ‘Talk about horrifying.'

‘Why? What happened?' I immediately felt bad – Bryce had been in the middle of telling me his story when Matt had turned up with the flowers.

‘Well, it started out okay,' Alyssa explained. ‘He said the man was just standing there, and Bryce wasn't scared – he had been hoping to connect with a ghost, after all.' Alyssa paused, looking to her sister.

‘I'll finish the story,' Amelia said. ‘The next bit freaks Alyssa out too much.'

I felt a little sick. If I was honest, I didn't think I'd have the courage to communicate with ghosts. I thought Bryce was really brave for trying it. Dean was sitting, up straighter, too, his attention now off the meatball sandwich and totally focused on Amelia.

‘Bryce said the guy was moving his mouth like he was talking to him, but he couldn't hear any words. And then the guy grabbed his foot.' I gasped. ‘And he kept tugging on it. Bryce was trying to shake him off, and all of a sudden he could hear what the man was saying . . .'

She paused dramatically.

‘C'mon, Amelia, spit it out,' Dean urged her.

Amelia's hands gripped the table. ‘He was saying, “COME WITH ME.”'

‘Urgh.' Alyssa shuddered. ‘That's so creepy!'

‘So what did Bryce do?' I asked, trying not to show that this was totally spooking me.

‘He just said no,' Amelia said seriously. ‘He had to say it about twenty times, but eventually the ghost let go of him, and then it just faded away.'

I felt chilled. What can of worms had I opened? I was doing love spells with blood, and Bryce was being told by ghosts to go with them! Where did they want him to go? Where were we all going with this?

The afternoon classes passed in a blur. I passed Bryce once in the hallway but he looked the other way, which was incredibly depressing. I couldn't wait for the day to be over so that I could go home and put this love-spell drama behind me. But there was no such luck – Matt was standing at the top of the school steps waiting for me.

‘Vania! Vania! Vania!'

I tried to avoid him by slipping around the side of the building, but he came running over to me. I was shocked to see that he had a huge black eye.

‘Matt! What happened?'

He looked at the ground sheepishly and then grinned. ‘Some of the guys gave me a hard time for buying you flowers, but I stood up for you!' He rubbed at his eye. ‘It hurt, but you're worth it.'

I wanted to tell him it served him right for spitting in my face, but try as I might, I couldn't be that mean. So much for getting my revenge. So I just said, ‘Thank you, Matt.'

At this he grabbed my hands and wrapped them around his waist! I was so shocked I didn't know what to do. All of a sudden I was conscious of the fact that he was older than me and a lot more experienced.

He bent his head to kiss me, but at the last second I managed to twist my head away. His mouth landed on my chin, catching part of my bottom lip on the way then slobbering all over the lower half of my face. It was disgusting!

So this was my first kiss. And unfortunately it was witnessed by the rest of the coven. Bryce looked dismayed, the twins looked impressed and Dean looked smug, no doubt congratulating himself on the success of the spell.

Meanwhile, I was once again seriously questioning my sanity for having performed the spell in the first place.

I finally managed to untangle my arms from around Matt's torso and push him off me. ‘Matt,' I said breathlessly, ‘I have to go . . . I have to do research for a school project, so I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.' I ran over to my coven before he could stop me.

‘Oh my gosh!' squealed Alyssa. ‘He
is
in love with you!'

‘Hmmm, I'm not so sure about that.' Amelia folded her arms and gave me a quizzical look.

‘Whatever,' said Dean brightly. ‘Let's go to the Purple Raven.' He practically hauled me up the street ahead of the others. ‘Are we going to tell them?' he hissed when they were out of earshot.

‘I think Amelia already knows. Whatever psychic shield the spell threw up is obviously wearing off now.'

‘Well, let's own up before they take offence that we didn't tell them about it in the first place,' Dean said. I nodded.

We stopped and waited for the rest of the coven to catch up.

‘We have something to confess,' I began.

‘I think we know,' said Amelia and Alyssa together.

‘We figured that, but let me explain please,' I said.

I looked to Bryce, who was frowning. ‘What do you have to confess? That Matt Rock likes you and you like him? That's obvious.' He was rolling his eyes.

‘Actually, Dean and I did a spell . . .' I began my explanation hesitantly, but then a feeling of defiance came over me. What was I grovelling for? I had done a spell that worked. Why did I have to apologise for that? A rush of power started in my feet and sped all too quickly to my head. ‘And it worked!' I lifted my chin.

‘What kind of spell?' Bryce was looking at me like he didn't want to hear the answer.

‘A love spell,' I said proudly.

Alyssa shook her head. ‘And I thought Matt Rock liked you for real.' She seemed genuinely upset.

‘Why did you need to do that?' asked Bryce. He sounded disappointed, and my defiance evaporated, once again I was reminded that this stupid spell hadn't been a good idea.

‘Well, it was revenge, to be honest. The other day he was really mean to me, and I got so mad – I wanted to get him back, so I did a spell that Dean helped me find on the internet.'

‘You found a spell on the internet?' Amelia said. ‘That's stupid – there are all sorts of freaks out there, and you can't just trust anything someone puts online.'

‘I did warn her – but then I helped her find it,' Dean said in a guilty tone.

‘I want to break it now. I'm glad to know it worked, but I don't want Matt bugging me anymore. It was a mistake. I'm sorry,' I said sincerely. I looked at them all, but my eyes settled the longest on Bryce.

‘Let's go and ask Brenda what to do to sort this out,' he said decisively and strode off up the street towards the Purple Raven.

‘But Bryce, don't you have to ask Brenda about your ghost first?' I called out after him.

‘Don't worry about me – I have my magic under control,' he retorted over his shoulder.

I looked at the twins and they shrugged.

Brenda was waiting at the door of the cafe as we came down the alley. She was wearing a voluminous black caftan and a solemn expression.

‘This is a serious matter,' she said, giving me a cold look.

‘What?' I gulped. Was she psychic, too?

‘I sensed a shift in energies last night during my full-moon meditation,' she began. She beckoned us with a long, bejewelled finger and then continuing in an odd singsong tone: ‘A wayward spell shall not go unnoticed. Come inside, all of you.'

The furniture inside the cafe had been pushed to the sides of the room. The rugs had been rolled back. There was a star painted on the floor. Four of the five points were the directions of the compass – north (painted white), south (red), east (green) and west (blue). A symbol that looked like a figure-eight lying on its side was painted in gold at the top of the fifth point. A large circle of black candles surrounded the star, and in the centre of it all, somewhat incongruously, there was a yellow bucket, filled with white powder.