So Mote it Be (6 page)

“Hello?”

“Hi,” said a girl's voice. It was Tara.

“Oh, hi,” said Kate.

“Don't sound so thrilled,” Tara said sarcastically. “Who did you think it was, Regis phoning because a friend needs your help with the million-dollar question?”

“I thought you might be Scott,” Kate admitted.

Tara sighed. “One request for a date and already you're sitting by the phone,” she said. “I thought you were a liberated woman.”

Kate laughed. “He just said he might call, that's all,” she said.

“Maybe he will,” said Tara. “In the meantime, have you studied for the chem midterm tomorrow?”

Kate groaned. “I forgot all about it,” she admitted. “Not that studying would help any. I'm hopeless when it comes to that stuff.”

“Well, I need to pass,” said Tara. “I'm going to cram for a couple of hours. If you want to come over, I could use some help.”

“Maybe,” Kate said. “I have some stuff I need to do here first. I'll call you back in a little bit and let you know, okay?”

She hung up, and almost immediately the phone rang again.

“If you're ordering pizza, I want extra anchovies,” she said after picking it up, assuming it was Tara calling back to try to bribe her with food, as she usually did.

“Well, I'm an extra cheese man myself, but I'm willing to change,” said a male voice.

“Scott?” said Kate. She felt her face instantly redden. “Sorry. I thought you were Tara. We have this running joke about pizza with anchovies because once we ordered it by mistake and . . . oh, never mind.”

Scott laughed. “Don't worry about it,” he said. “I think it's cute.”

Kate blushed again.
He thinks I'm cute
.

“I was just calling to see if you had any ideas about costumes for the dance,” Scott said. “I'm not real good with creative stuff, so I need all the help I can get.”

Kate settled back against the pillows on her bed. Now that they were talking, she was starting to relax a little bit. Part of her still couldn't believe that she was talking to Scott Coogan about going on an actual date. She thought hard about what kind of costumes they could wear.

“Do we want funny or serious?” she asked. “I mean, we could go as Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, or we could go as Bonnie and Clyde. What kind of mood are we going for?”

“Well, it
is
Valentine's Day and all,” Scott answered. “I was thinking maybe something romantic.”

Kate pumped her fist in the air and kicked her feet against the bed. Scott wanted to be romantic! A day before he had never even spoken to her, and now he was talking about her as if they were a couple. Well, practically a couple. And she had witchcraft to thank for it. She thought about Sherrie's saying that it would take a fairy godmother with a magic wand to get Scott to ask her out. It had been more true than Sherrie would ever know, and it gave Kate an idea.

“I know,” she said. “We could go as Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip from the Disney version of
Sleeping Beauty
. That's definitely romantic, and it wouldn't be too much work.”

“Sounds good to me,” Scott said. “What should I wear?”

“I think he wears some kind of nondescript medieval outfit,” Kate said. “I'm sure we can find a picture somewhere online.”

“I'll get on it,” Scott said.

Kate tried to picture Sherrie's face when she saw her and Scott the night of the dance. Since the gym would be decorated like the ballroom in Sleeping Beauty's castle, it would be as if the whole dance had been created just for her and Scott. They'd be the center of attention. She couldn't imagine anything more perfect.

“I'm really looking forward to this,” she said. “To tell the truth, I was a little surprised that you asked me.”

Scott paused. “I was sort of surprised myself,” he admitted. “I mean, everyone kind of expected me to go with Terri. But then last night I found myself thinking about going with you, and the more I thought about it the more I realized that you were the one I really wanted to be there with.”

Last night
, thought Kate.
Right when I did the spell
. Never mind the forty-eight-hour time frame given in the book. Now there was no doubt in her mind that it was magic that had brought her and Scott together.

“Well, I'm glad you asked me,” Kate said.

She and Scott talked for a while about school and football and what they both liked to do for fun. When Kate finally hung up, reluctantly, she was happier than she'd ever been. She wasn't sure she could call Scott her boyfriend, but it looked as if things were definitely heading in that direction.

The phone rang a third time, and she picked it up. “Hello?” she said dreamily, still thinking of Scott.

“Thanks for calling back,” Tara said. She sounded angry. “I kept trying to call you, but nobody was picking up call waiting.”

“Sorry,” said Kate. “Scott called. Do you still want me to come over?”

“Don't bother,” Tara said. “It's too late now anyway. I'll finish up by myself.”

She hung up. Kate put the phone down. Why did Tara have to ruin her perfect evening? Kate didn't see what the big deal was about a little studying. It wasn't like either of them was going to do well on the test anyway. It would take a miracle for them to get good grades.

Or magic
, said a voice in Kate's head.

She thought about it for a minute. Magic
had
gotten her a date with Scott. Could it also help her get good grades? It seemed a little greedy to be doing another spell so quickly. Then again, she
did
need help. It was late, and she hadn't even cracked her chem stuff. Maybe a little boost wouldn't be asking too much.

She picked up the spell book and looked through it. Sure enough, toward the back she found a spell for helping the caster excel when tested. “This spell will help someone remember information learned in preparation for an exam,” she read. Plus, the disclaimer at the bottom didn't say anything about a delay in the effects. Well, she hadn't exactly learned anything to remember yet, but maybe it would work anyway. After all, she hadn't followed the Come to Me Love Spell exactly the way it was written, and the effects had been even stronger than planned. This one would undoubtedly work for her.

Ten minutes later she was sitting in a circle of candles with both the spell book and her chemistry textbook in her lap. The spell book told her to close her eyes and picture herself doing well on her exam. She imagined herself in Miss Blackwood's classroom. She saw the periodic table hanging on the front wall. She imagined herself looking at her test paper and filling in the answers easily. Then she envisioned herself going through the steps of the lab practical, measuring things into beakers and writing down the results.

When she had a good image of all these things being done successfully, she opened her eyes and, holding the chemistry textbook tightly in her hands, read the words of the spell.

Facts and figures, rules and laws,

fill my mind and give me cause

to answer questions, fulfill tasks,

and know the things I shall be asked.

When I'm challenged, give me aid,

to receive a passing grade.

All this knowledge stay with me.

As I will, so mote it be.

I don't feel any smarter
, she thought as she sat there, waiting for something to happen. She tried going over some familiar chemistry formulas in her head. Nothing came to her. But maybe the spell needed time to work. The love spell had taken a little while to get going. It would probably take this one some time, too. She decided the best thing to do was to just wait.

Extinguishing the candles, she returned them to the box. The Ken doll was still in there as well. She took it out, held it in front of her, and kissed it, immediately feeling foolish. She thought about what it would be like to kiss Scott. She was sure he would kiss her at the dance. It would be exactly like the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale come true. She put the doll back into the box, and hid the box in her closet again.

She still wasn't sure what to do about the chemistry test. The book didn't say exactly how the spell worked, but it
did
say that it was meant to help her remember things. There wasn't time to read all the material that would be on the midterm, though, so she would have to hope things would work out. Just in case it would help, she decided to sleep with her chemistry textbook and notebook under her pillow, hoping maybe the spell would help some of the information stick in her head. It sounded weird, but weirder things had already happened to her.

Kate woke up the next morning with a cramp in her neck from sleeping all night with her head on the chemistry book. As she rubbed the sore muscles with her fingers, she knew she'd made a horrible mistake. She was suddenly very much aware that she was about to walk into a midterm exam for a subject she knew very little about. She didn't seem to know anything more about chemistry than she had the night before.

Brushing thoughts of the exam from her mind, she showered and dressed. Instead of wearing her usual outfit of jeans and a shirt, she decided to wear something with a little more style, just in case Scott wanted to hang out with her. Pulling on a long black skirt and a form-fitting V-neck sweater, Kate imagined Scott checking her out and liking what he saw. Thinking about him made her feel better, and by the time she left for school she'd forgotten about the exam.

Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara were hanging out by the lockers when Kate got to school. Sizing up her outfit, they looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“Dressing up for your new man?” Sherrie asked. Her voice was pleasant, but Kate thought there was more than a hint of sarcasm in her statement.

“Just trying to keep up with you,” she answered just as sweetly as she put her stuff in her locker. Then she turned to Tara.

“I'm really sorry about last night,” she said.

Tara looked away from her. “I said it was okay,” she said, but she didn't sound like she'd forgiven Kate at all.

“What's up with you guys today?” Kate asked, trying to sound upbeat. “Did someone die?”

None of them said anything, but Kate caught Jessica and Sherrie exchanging a look.

“What?” she said. “What's going on?”

“You should probably know that people have been talking,” Sherrie said finally.

“Talking?” said Kate. “About what?”

“About you,” said Jess, as if breaking bad news.

“What about me?” asked Kate.

Her friends looked at each other again. Clearly, they knew something they didn't want her to know. Finally, Jessica sighed.

“You weren't the first girl Scott Coogan asked to the dance,” she said. Then she looked at Sherrie and Tara before adding, “He asked Terri Fletcher.”

“What are you talking about?” Kate said. “He told me that he had been thinking of asking Terri but that he didn't.”

“That's a boy for you,” Sherrie said, butting in. “He did ask Terri. On Wednesday. Then he called her the next day and told her he didn't want to go with her.”

“How do you know this?” Kate asked faintly. There was a sick feeling growing in her stomach.

“
Everybody
knows it,” Sherrie said, and Kate couldn't help but notice that her friend seemed a little pleased with herself.

Kate didn't know what to say. She felt as if she was being attacked. “I can't help it if Scott asked me and not Terri,” she said.

“Maybe not,” Sherrie said. “But Terri thinks you set out to get him. And she's not the only one.”

“What are you saying?” Kate demanded. “Do you think I did it on purpose?” She looked from Sherrie to Jessica to Tara.

Jessica shrugged. “I don't know,” she said. “It does seem strange that a guy who never noticed you before suddenly asks you out and dumps the girl he asked in the first place.”

Kate looked at Tara. “And what do you think?” she asked. She knew she sounded really angry, but she couldn't help it.

“I don't think it's your fault,” she said carefully. “But I also don't think it's like you to stand one of your friends up to talk to a guy, and you did that last night.”

Kate didn't know what to say. She felt like she was on trial. And to make things worse, her very best friends were the ones judging her.

“I've known you guys since we were all six years old,” Kate said. “I can't believe you would listen to what other people are saying about me!”

“We're not saying you did anything wrong,” Sherrie reassured her. “We're just saying you should be careful. You don't want people to think the wrong thing.”

Kate looked away. “I think they already do,” she said. “I've got to go.”

Hugging her books to her chest, she walked away as quickly as she could without running. Part of her hoped that her friends would come after her, but another part wanted to get away from them. How dare they accuse her of doing something to win Scott away from Terri? It wasn't her fault that he had asked her out and then changed his mind.

Or was it? Had the spell really done that? Did magic work that way? She hadn't meant to hurt anyone's feelings. She'd just wanted Scott to like her.

As she walked to class, she couldn't help but notice that some people were watching her. Most of them were boys. She was getting used to that. But now some of the girls were staring as she passed them as well. She thought she heard some of them whisper as she went by, but she didn't want to know what they were saying, so she kept going until she reached the chemistry room. She went to her seat and sat down, pretending to look at her notebook as the other students filed in. Tara came in and took the seat next to Kate, but Kate didn't say anything.