Authors: Trish Milburn
“I did most of the work already.”
“When?”
“During other classes. I’m pretty good at multi-tasking.”
“Who’s Supergirl now?”
Toni rolls her eyes. “Whatever. Come on, just for a few minutes. It’s your first day, so you have to get the full Baker Gap experience. It absolutely will not be complete without some post-school cheese fries and a chocolate shake.”
I waver. I want to get home and decompress, not worry about everything I say and every movement I make, but potential fun tempts me.
Fun. Actual fun.
“Keller will be there,” Toni says in a teasing, sing-song voice.
My gaze shoots back to Toni’s, and I wish I’d done better in my Masking Emotions class.
Toni laughs. “You should see the look on your face.”
“Why
. . .”
“Oh, come on,” Toni says. “You like him. He likes you. It’s as obvious as the fact Baker Gap will never have a Macy’s.”
“He likes me?” Had he actually said it, or was Toni guessing?
“Duh. Maybe you have a little dumb blonde in you after all.” Toni slips her arm around mine and leads me toward the school exit.
We walk a couple of blocks before I shove the knowledge I should stay far away from Keller aside and ask the question swirling inside my head. “So, Keller isn’t mad at me?”
“Mad? Why would he be mad?”
“I don’t know. After I hit that homerun in P.E., I saw him heading inside and he looked, well, not happy.”
“He’s a competitive athlete. He doesn’t like to lose. Testosterone and all that.”
“He’s on the baseball team?”
“No, he’s a cross-country runner.”
That explained his lean muscles.
Toni points toward the edge of her own mouth. “You got a little something here. I think it’s drool.”
I push my new friend in the upper arm, causing us both to laugh. “Okay, enough at my expense. What about you? You got the hots for anyone in particular?”
“You mean besides Jensen Ackles?”
“Um, hello, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t live here, unless he’s shooting something nearby and I wasn’t immediately made aware of that important fact. If he is, you’re going to have a fight on your hands.”
“Hey, you stick with Keller. Leave me the superstar hotties.”
“Seriously, dating anyone?”
“That would be a big, fat no. Baker Gap isn’t exactly awash with stunning specimens of young manhood or intelligence. Keller’s about the best catch, and contrary to what you might hear about those of us who live in Appalachia, we don’t date our cousins.”
We reach Squeaky’s, which looks like it might have been a drive-in during the ‘50s but no longer has the call boxes. The place is packed with a lot of familiar faces from school, some filling the inside tables, others circling the ones outside under bright picnic table umbrellas.
“Like I said, the place to be.” Toni leads the way to an outdoor table beneath a purple umbrella.
Eric jumps up at the sight of us, and there’s another girl sitting next to him. But no Keller. I fight irrational disappointment and wonder if a side effect of leaving the coven is the loss of my mind. But then Keller steps out of the front door of Squeaky’s and stops in his tracks, a tray filled with food held in front of him.
Toni makes an amused sound of exasperation and goes over to drag her cousin back to the table. Then she points one index finger at Keller, the other at me. “Sit, both of you. I’m going for food.”
We do as she’s commanded, and I become aware of several things at once. My own nervousness matched only by Keller’s fidgeting, a look of disappointment on Eric’s face and a sense of relief from the other girl—Paige, that’s her name. I suspect that Paige is pining away for Eric, and he, being a typical human male, doesn’t have the first clue. Maybe I can get Toni to work her strange kind of matchmaking magic there, too.
“So, how’d you like your first day?” Eric asks.
“It was fine. Still trying to get all the names straight.”
“I’m guessing you won’t forget Stacy’s anytime soon,” Toni says as she returns to the table with cheese fries and sodas for herself and me.
Keller shakes his head.
“Unfortunately, I think it’s burned forever into my brain.” I catch sight of Stacy’s hateful glare where she sits with Liv, Brianna and a couple of jocks a few tables away. Stacy ignores them all, her fury at me sitting next to Keller more obvious than if it were scrolling across her forehead like a news ticker. If Stacy were a witch, she’d be flaying the skin from my body right now. I shiver at the thought.
“Must be different here after living in a city,” Paige says.
I bring my attention back to my fledgling circle of friends. “Quieter, smaller, but nice.”
Groans around the table indicate the long-time inhabitants don’t equate quiet and small with nice.
I look up at the imposing height of the mountain flanking the town. I’m not going to try to convince my classmates that Baker Gap is great. Hadn’t I, too, wanted to get as far away from “home” as possible, to experience something different?
I nibble on my cheese fries, still too nervous to have much of an appetite. My whole body hums with Keller’s presence mere inches away.
When he turns to look at me, I nearly choke. “Would you like a milkshake?”
“Uh, sure.” I offer a shaky smile. “Thanks.”
“What kind?”
“Chocolate,” I say, then have to swallow against the dryness invading my throat like an army of blowtorches.
“Chocolate,” someone mimics behind me.
My jaws clench at the sound of Stacy’s grating voice. She really is taking this mean girl, queen bitch thing a bit too seriously. Though it’s difficult, I ignore her. If Stacy can’t get the reaction she wants, she’ll go away. And good riddance.
“You want chocolate, here’s your chocolate.”
I gasp when I feel cold hit my scalp. It takes a moment for me to realize Stacy has upended a milkshake on the top of my head.
“Oh, look at that. All her glorious blond hair doesn’t look so glorious anymore.” Stacy and her followers laugh. “Don’t mess with me, witch.”
I surge to my feet, anger at how Stacy has filled “witch” with venom propelling me, the blackness of my kind rising inside me until even my vision turns dark. It breathes like a distinct entity inside me. As I catch Stacy’s gaze, a gust of wind sweeps paper cups and napkins from the outdoor tables, sending them sailing down the street. It makes my chocolate-soaked hair stir around me.
Fear flits across Stacy’s face before she remembers she’s supposed to be the one with the upper hand here. But that moment of fear is enough to send a shock through me. Dear God, I’ve nearly lost control again. I’ve never felt that much blackness inside. And I’ve never altered the weather around me. I force the darkness back down into the cave within myself, shaking as I do so.
“Excuse me.” I head for the bathroom. Everyone will think it’s to wash the ice cream out of my hair or to cry. They won’t have any idea it’s to prevent myself from killing one of their classmates.
Once inside the bathroom, I splash cold water on my face to dampen my raging temper. I could use a good dunking in a river, but there isn’t one close at hand.
The door opens and I stiffen, determined not to lose my cool no matter what Stacy does or says. I will succeed at a good, normal life. I will.
“You okay?” Gone is the usual teasing, fun lilt to Toni’s voice. Now, she’s all genuine concern.
“Fine. Just embarrassed.”
“Well, you’re not the only one,” Paige says.
I glance up, and a trickle of water drips off the end of my nose. “What?”
“Keller just told Stacy that he’s met kindergartners with more maturity, loud enough for everyone outside to hear. She looked like she was about to cry. Ran to her car and peeled out like rubber was going out of style.”
I glance down into the bowl of the sink. “I didn’t expect to end my first day here as public enemy number one.”
“You’re not.” Toni pulls some of my dripping hair away from my face. “There are a lot of people who don’t like Stacy or her groupies.”
“Applause actually broke out when Keller told her off,” Paige says, satisfaction ringing in her voice.
“Why does she hate me so much? She doesn’t even know me.”
“Stacy’s used to getting whatever Stacy wants.” Toni leans back against the countertop. “Except Keller. He’s the only guy she deems worthy who refuses to go out with her. And the fact he was attracted to you from the first moment he saw you is burning a stupendous hole in her oversized ego.”
I shake my head. “I just wanted life to be normal here.” I don’t realize how revealing that statement is until I look up and see the other two girls giving me questioning looks.
“Hate to break it to you, but you’re not normal,” Toni says.
I swallow hard, past the grapefruit-sized lump in my throat. “What
. . .
what do you mean?”
Toni points toward the mirror. “Look in there. You’re beautiful. Movie star beautiful. Until people get used to it, the guys are going to trip over themselves staring at you and the girls are going to be jealous that you’re stealing all the attention.”
I glance in the mirror at Paige, who blushes.
“Sorry, guilty as charged.” Paige shrugs. “Can’t help it. I saw Eric looking at you the way I wish he’d look at me, and that little green monster in me took over.”
“I don’t like Eric. I mean, I like him, but not romantic like.”
“I know. One look at your face when you saw Keller told me that.”
“I’m that obvious, huh?” That’s so not good news.
Toni laughs. “You should get ‘obvious’ tattooed across your forehead.”
“Yeah, that would be attractive. Hey, maybe it’d get me sympathy instead of angry looks from every girl in school.”
“Not
every
girl,” Paige says. “Personally, I think you’re pretty cool.”
I snort a laugh. “Thanks, but I think you’re in the minority.”
“You might be surprised.” Toni pushes herself away from the sinks. “We’ll wait for you outside.”
I nod, wait until the bathroom is mine alone before I shove my head under a stream of water to wash out as much of the ice cream as possible. I squeeze the water from my hair with paper towels and wish I had a hair dryer. Actually, I can wave my hands and dry it in two seconds flat, but I don’t dare indulge in even that bit of magic after what just happened outside. That seething darkness inside me, the other side of myself, scared me more than anything I’ve experienced since my mother’s death.
I stare at myself in the mirror. All that stares back is a blond, teenage girl, almost normal. But she isn’t normal. Toni has no idea how right she is.
I hide in the bathroom for ten more minutes, hoping that the outside world will go away while I’m tucked out of sight. Pretty convinced it won’t, and suddenly mad at myself for acting the victim, I straighten, give myself a little mental pep talk then head out of the restroom and through the restaurant. I’m sure I’m quite the radiant beauty now with my wet hair, splotchy makeup and milkshake-splattered shirt.