BeSwitched, Paranormal Romance (4 page)

Chapter 6

As Surla was walking home, she heard the sound of footsteps follow behind her. She turned to see Tiffany, Chrissy, and a Hawaiian-looking girl with long black hair. Chrissy smiled slightly at Surla. The two other girls started whispering.

Wind started blowing golden and brown leaves down the sidewalk.
Idis’s favorite month
, Surla thought. Revere Park could be seen with its maple trees and segments of a short stone wall wrapping around it. As she was getting closer, sheets upon sheets of paper were spotted, posted on the trees.
I wonder what those could be. Maybe a big event is going to happen
. They rippled in the breeze, when suddenly one ripped loose. It flew, twisting and turning in her direction. It finally ended up face down a few feet away.

When Surla picked it up and saw what it contained, she gasped. It wasn’t about an event
; it was about herself! Her ice-blue eyes skimmed the horribly drawn picture of a black cat. In bold ink, at the bottom, was written, “Idis’s missing cat, Surla. 713 Shadyside Street.”

Chills ran through her body, as her eyes darted to the numerous fliers.
I can’t let anyone see these!

“What’s the matter, Cathy?” Tiffany mocked, as she and her two friends walked ahead.

“Just keep walking.” Surla wasn’t in the mood to be bothered by the snob. Something more troubling was on her mind.

She hopped easily over the small stone wall, to the park, and headed to a tree with three of the same notices posted. After ripping them down, she continued gathering more. “So, so many,” Surla murmured. Sheets blew all around her, twirling through the air and catching in bushes and benches. Pretty soon she held a stack of about twenty.

“Hey!” Surla recognized the growling voice from behind her as she kneeled, picking up another. Her heart skipped a couple beats when she turned to see Idis scowling at her.

“What do you think you are doing?” The frenzied witch snatched the papers out of Surla’s shaking hands.

Surla brushed a flyaway strand of brown hair out of her eyes nervously. “I-I was just… collecting some?”

“What do you mean, ‘collecting some
’?” She copied the unsure answer.

Her
glowing, pale green eyes made Surla feel as if Idis could see right through to her true identity.

“Um… uh, uh,” she stammered
. “Because I-I.”
Stop acting like this, Surla!
she scolded herself.
If you keep this up, Idis is sure to figure it out
.

“Oh, just shut up and get out of my way!” A cold hand pushed Surla down onto a bench. She then proceeded to nail a flier to a tree with a small hammer held in her dress pocket. “I don’t want to see you pick up any more of my missing cat notices. If you even had a clue as to who I am…” Idis aimed wrong, hitting her thumb. “Ouch!” she yelped, dropping the hammer on her black boot.

If only you had a clue as to who
I
am
, Surla considered with fright. Without hesitating any longer, she hopped the wall and jogged to Cathy’s home.

She entered the house through the unlocked garage door. Once in the kitchen she heard the sound of splashing water and singing. “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the streeeam!”

What is she doing?
Surla quietly peeked around the corner to see the living room, where Cathy was scrubbing the wooden floors. Green sponges were hooked to each paw. “Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dreeeam.”

“If you’re going to croon,
stay in tune.” Surla laughed, surprising Cathy.

“Don’t scare me like that. For a second you sounded like my mother. She would have had a heart attack if she saw a singing cat!”

“What happened in here?” Surla saw a bucket of sudsy water and muddy paw prints everywhere.

“Sadie, the dog from next door, chased me all around outside and before I could jump back inside through the window I ran into a muddy puddle.”

“I never did like dogs.” Surla said as she grabbed a sponge from underneath one of Cathy’s paws. “I’ll help. It will get done quicker.”

“Thanks.” Cathy’s skinny tail popped up suddenly. “What happened at school today? You know I’ve been dying for you to tell me.”

“School was fun, but let me first tell something more important that happened after school.” She pulled off her tennis shoes before cleaning.

“What?” Cathy stopped in interest.

“I ran into Idis at Revere Park.”

“No way! An encounter with the witch?”

“Yep. And she’s been really busy lately.”

“What do you mean?”

“She must have over a hundred fliers about me.” Surla groaned. “Maybe two hundred.”

“Really!”

“Uh huh, and there’s nothing I can do about it, because she threatened me when seeing that I gathered a bunch of them.”

“Oh no,” Cathy growled. “What if my mom sees one of those?”

“All we can do is hope she doesn’t.”

“You’re
right.” Cathy continued scrubbing the floor. “What’s today’s
good
news?”

“Well, I saw Craig in P.E. We were on the same tennis court and he told you he was sorry for not giving you a ride home Friday.”

“Oh my gosh! He did?”

“Yes
.” Surla laughed. “But he didn’t even recognize you at first.”

“He didn’t?”
Her voice lowered in disappointment.

“Oh, don’t worry. I can tell he thinks you’re cute.” Surla looked down at the tight black outfit she had picked out. “Everyone thought you were. You received so many compliments and heads turning today. One compliment I know was from a guy named Todd, and then another by a girl named Chrissy.”

“Chrissy and Todd?” Cathy’s ears stood straight up like radars.

“Yes, why?”

“Well, it’s just that Chrissy hangs out with Tiffany, the girl I told you about who I don’t like at all, and Todd… well, he’s that really cute quarterback of our football team.”

“He is cute.” Surla stopped in thought for a second. “Do you think he’s cuter than Craig?”

“I don’t know.” Cathy sighed. They were almost done cleaning the floor. “They are about the same, but if I had to choose… I would choose Craig, of course. He just seems like a really cool guy. He can get any girl he desires.”

“Well, things are starting off pretty good between you two so far.” Surla finished the last dirty spot, then returned the bucket and sponges to underneath the kitchen sink.

“Hi, Cathy. Hi, Licorice.” Julie came in the front door, as they were laying on the couch, exhausted by the day. She took a seat next to them exclaiming how tired her feet were.

“Hi, Mom.” Surla sat up and yawned.

“I smell Pinesol.” She smiled, looking at the shiny wood floors. “Thanks. I’ll finish up later with some wood wax.”

“No problem.” Surla pulled down her high po
nytail that was giving her a headache.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.”
Julie pulled a folded up piece of paper out of her pants pocket. “This was posted on our door, before I left to the post office this morning.”

Cathy and Surla turned to each other
. Both had apprehension spelled across their faces. They knew what was to be shown—Idis’s missing cat notices.

“I just thought this was important… a Halloween party at
Revere Park. There will be dancing, contests, and spooky treats.” She then read straight from the notice. “This event is for both of the city’s high schools to attend. They can have fun and be safe at the same time.” She paused and looked up at Surla in the eyes. “Well, Cathy, what I was thinking was… you should go to this party… you know, because you aren’t as social as you could be.” Cathy rolled her yellow eyes as her mother continued, “You haven’t had any friends over in a while… and the only person who calls is your cousin in Kentucky.”

Surla thought that to be funny and grinned. Cathy on the other hand did not find it amusing at all—her right ear twitched.

Julie sat there, waiting for some response.

“I’ll go.” Surla smiled slightly, but inside she couldn’t hold her excitement,
Oh boy, oh boy, sounds so fun!

“Did I just hear you say you’ll go to this Halloween party?”

“Yes, Mom. Don’t worry, I’ll go. It sounds like fun.”

“Well, I’m happy I didn’t have to beg.”

“Oh, no. It’s fine.” Surla leaned over to rub her cheek against Julie’s in a purr, but was grasped into a hug.

The next day at school, in a light breeze, Surla played tennis with Craig again. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, except for Chrissy. She was constantly missing the ball, even if it headed straight for her racket. The guys were ahead in points, of course, and Chrissy didn’t seem to care.

What’s wrong with her? She was doing so well yesterday. Why isn’t she putting much effort into it today?
Surla thought.

After losing all of the games to Travis and Craig, Surla ran to the corner of the court to get a drink of water. Chrissy collected the rackets and returned them to the stand. As Surla drank, Craig snuck up from behind and tickled the sides of her stomach.

“Hey!” She turned around, wiping water from off her chin.

He smiled and his blue eyes lit up. “Sorry, but you were drinking for so long, I was wondering if you were going to save any for me.”

She laughed, playfully pushing his shoulder. Craig then took a quick drink and turned to Surla again. “Hey, um, can I get your number?”

My number?
she thought, puzzled. “13?”
I like that number
.

Chrissy unknowingly saved her from more embarrassment by tapping her on the shoulder and saying, “Come on… Mrs. Brown is calling us. We’ll be late for our next class.”

“Oh, okay.” Surla looked to the locker room and saw the teacher waving for them to hurry up. “Bye, Craig.” Surla walked off with Chrissy.

“I guess I’ll get it later then!” Craig called.

“He’ll get what later?” Chrissy asked, concerned.

“Oh.” Surla recalled his strange question. “He said he wanted my number.” They entered the musty locker room.

“Don’t give it to him.” Chrissy’s big brown eyes were serious.

“
But why?”

Chrissy pulled her hair out of its short ponytail, then continued, “I warned you about how Tiffany likes him. Just take my advice and don’t do it; don’t give him your number.”

Surla decided she would have to wait until after school to ask Cathy what she wanted to do about the situation.
How bad can Tiffany be?
she thought, undisturbed.

In Chemistry, Surla sat next to Todd again, since he saved a seat for her. Mrs. Spencer was at the front of the class, giving another one of her hard-to-understand lectures. Everyone was expected to write notes, and that’s exactly what Todd and Surla did, except they were writing them to each other.

Using his elbow, Todd passed the paper onto her side of the long lab desk they shared. Surla glanced down and read:
You look really nice today, just like you did yesterday.

She had chosen to wear a navy-blue turtleneck, from
Julie’s closet. Her hair was down this time, with the ends curled from rollers, and her eyes were once again emphasized by the black liner.

She wrote back in loopy letters:
Thank you. You look really nice also.

His dark hair was styled neatly and when he read her response he smiled, showing dimples. He wrote back:
Have you decided if you want me tutoring you after school?

Surla had completely forgotten to ask Cathy’s mom if it would be al
l right.
I really need the help though. Especially since there will be a test soon!
Remembering that, she had made up her mind:
Yes, I have thought about it and decided I would like you to help me
.

She pushed the note over, and he quickly jotted down:
Great! I’ll teach you about Chemistry, while we make some of our own
:0
)

Surla had a good idea of what he meant by that.
I’m not supposed to be attracting you. I’m supposed to be attracting Craig
, she thought. So, she wrote:
Let’s just stay with the dictionary’s definition of Chemistry, for now.

After class, Surla let him know that tomorrow would be good for him to come over. She
needed time to tell Cathy and her mom about it first.

This time, when walking home, Tiffany, Lisa and Chrissy were ahead of Surla. Tiffany wore a red cotton dress that, according to the wind’s direction, blew to and fro along with her hair. She had to admit, Tiffany was a very pretty human.
Perhaps a little too thin
, she thought;
but, very pretty, nonetheless
.

Her eyes then scanned over to Lisa.
Her black hair was incredibly long, reaching passed her rear in a thick braid. Her figure was cute; she was petite.