Authors: Trish Milburn
I sigh as I shift positions after totally missing the ball when it came right at me. Keller might be dangerous to me, but my heart still beats like it’s on speed every time I get near him.
P.E. drags on forever. As I move into a spot next to the net, I glance over at Keller, unable to keep myself from enjoying the view. The next thing I know, the ball smacks me in the head. I blink several times to clear my vision and look up to see Keller next to me, an expression of concern on his face.
“Are you okay?”
Oh, how I love his voice. “Yeah, fine. I’ve quickly become the most accident-prone student in school though.” I rub the side of my head.
Keller pushes my hand away from my temple and lifts the edge of my hair to check for injury. My breathing, my blood flow, all my motor functions just stop as I concentrate on the feel of his fingertips on my skin, the heat of him so close. He certainly isn’t acting like he knows I’m a witch. And in this moment I don’t care that he’s a supernatural hunter. I just want to know what it feels like to kiss him.
His eyes meet mine. Is he thinking the same thing?
“Okay, Stacy, that’s it,” Coach Billings says. “To the principal’s office.”
Just what I need, another reason for Stacy to hate me. I turn my attention to the other side of the net.
“No, it wasn’t her fault. I wasn’t paying attention.”
Stacy stares at me as if she can’t possibly have heard me correctly.
“You’re sure?” Coach asks. He doesn’t sound the least bit convinced, like he knows there’s more going on here than clumsy students.
“Yeah. I’m fine, really.” Actually, my temple stings, and a bit of dizziness has invaded my head.
“Take a break anyway,” Coach says and nods toward the bleachers.
Keller’s hand cradles my arm, steadying me. Did I wobble a little? Stacy’s eyes narrow, but she says nothing. The queen bee isn’t stupid. She knows what had distracted my attention. The volleyball to the head is proof enough of that.
As Keller helps me over to the bleachers, I’m not under the illusion that Stacy and I are going to be best buds now. But as I’d tried and failed to sleep without dreaming early this morning, I hit upon a plan to help me avoid going all Miss Darkness around her. I just have to be nice to her. If I’m nice, it’ll be harder for Stacy to be bitchy in return. At least that’s the theory.
“You want me to sit here with you? Do you feel like you might pass out?” Keller asks.
He really is sweet, unlike any boy I’ve ever met. How can I resist that when I’ve longed so much for kindness in my life?
Remember he’s a hunter. Remember the bloodstone. Oh, yeah, that.
“I promise, I’m okay. Go back and finish the game. I’ll just watch.” Watch and lust and imagine he isn’t the worst guy in the world for me.
That’s exactly what I do, not even pretending to watch anyone but Keller. He has to know it too because every time he glances my way, I meet his eyes and smile. He always smiles back, making me crazy with yearning. Whatever had been on his mind earlier in the day, he appears to have forgotten it. If he suspects anything odd about me, he seems to be temporarily ignoring facts, too. And that is more than okay with me.
I smile all the way through my shower, then on the way to sixth period, can’t even stop when I sit down across from Toni. I’ve totally lost my mind even considering being with Keller. But my crazy heart is telling me I’m already living dangerously by running away from my family, why not crush on a guy who would destroy me if he knew for certain what I am?
“I know that look,” Toni says as a grin spreads across her face and she drums the tabletop. “Okay, listen, I have an idea, since my cousin is likely to take a century to get around to asking you out. We’re playing at The Barn on Friday night, so you should come. I’ll arrange it so it’s a group thing, but there will definitely be some quality Keller time.”
“Playing? And what’s The Barn?”
“Baker Gap’s answer to a nightclub. It’s a barn outside of town the owners have turned into a music venue. Every night has bands with different kinds of music, and Friday is rock night. Oh, and I guess I haven’t told you I’m in a band, thus the pink,” she says as she points at her hair.
“Really? That’s cool. You sing?”
“A little, but I mainly bang the hell out of the drums. Mom’s so proud.”
“Your mom doesn’t like your music?”
A bit of Toni’s effervescence dissolves. “Let’s just say having a pink-haired daughter in a rock band wasn’t high on her list of aspirations.”
I feel the overwhelming need to lighten the mood. “Well, you’re really more blond than pink. And you don’t have visible tattoos or a scary guitarist boyfriend.”
Toni snorts. “Feel free to be my advocate with my mom anytime.”
“So, what’s your band’s name?”
“Nemesis. I suggested Hostile 17, but the guys drew the line and threatened a Buffy intervention, so I backed down. Now there’s another band with that name.”
“You really are obsessed.”
“Hey, look where I live. I deal how I can.”
Ms. Appleton enters the room and starts talking about sculpture. Toni leans over and whispers, “You’re coming with Paige and me to Celene’s after school. You need something new and hot for the big night.”
“I don’t know.”
“I do. That’s all that matters.”
I shake my head at how quickly Toni and I are bonding. She’s the goofy best friend I’ve never had. I just have to make sure befriending her isn’t the hugest mistake Toni’s ever made.
“Hubba hubba,”
Toni says from behind where I stand looking in a mirror in Toni’s bedroom. “If I weren’t as straight as an arrow, I’d go out with you. Say, you don’t happen to have any gorgeous male cousins lurking about, do you?”
I barely keep myself from jerking. I do in fact have several gorgeous male cousins, but I don’t want them anywhere near Toni. “No, sorry.”
Toni shrugs. “Worth a try.” She turns away to pull on her chunky, black, lace-up shoes that somehow go well with her flared jeans covered in pink paint splashes that match the streaks in her hair. When she disappears into her closet, I return my attention to my own reflection.
Toni and Paige convinced me to buy a killer pair of low-rider jeans covered with several painted flowers centered with bronze sequins. I turn sideways to admire them and the sleeveless bronze top, the great sandals and the large hoops filled with copper and bronze beads hanging from my ears. I’m going to freeze, but I’ll look good doing it.
When Toni emerges from the closet, she’s changed into a different shirt, a black tee with hot pink writing that says, “Hostile 17 stole my kittens!”
I raise an eyebrow.
“What? Just because the band can’t be called Hostile 17 doesn’t mean I don’t get my point across whenever I can.”
“Help me.”
We both turn to see Paige standing in the doorway, looking so forlorn my heart leaps in worry. “What’s wrong?”
Paige enters the room and proceeds to flop onto her back on the bed. “I need you two to make me gorgeous, make me stand out.”
“This is about Eric, isn’t it?” I ask.
Paige looks up. “See, it’s even obvious to you, and I’ve known you less than a week. Why are men so oblivious?”
“Part of their inferior brain function,” Toni responds in a sage, matter-of-fact way.
“Well, I’m tired of waiting for him to notice, damn it. Either he notices me tonight or I’m through.”
“Try flirting with someone else,” Toni suggests.
“You know me, I don’t flirt. No, instead I pined away for Eric since sixth grade.”
I sit beside Paige. “You’ve liked him that long?”
“Pathetic, isn’t it?”
“On his part for not noticing.”
Paige turns her head to look at me. “I have to admit, when I first saw you and how Eric looked at you, I was prepared to hate you. But I can’t. You’re too likeable.”
I smile. “Thanks. I think that’s the nicest thing anybody’s ever said to me.”
“Okay, so we have our mission,” Toni says with a clap of her hands. “Operation Make Paige Irresistible.”
We spend the next half-hour choosing clothes, applying makeup, selecting jewelry and transforming Paige’s deep russet hair with generous amounts of styling products. By the time we finish, Paige is a smokin’ vision in a white, off-the-shoulder blouse, jeans that hug her shape in all the right places and giant silver hoops dangling from her earlobes.
“Holy tamales, you’re hot,” Toni says.
“Really?” Paige is looking in the mirror as if she isn’t sure it’s her staring back.
“I second the hotness,” I say, absolutely loving this gal-pal time. “And if Eric doesn’t notice, I will personally toss him off the nearest mountaintop for you.”
Paige spins and hugs us both at the same time. “You guys are awesome.” When she pulls back, she eyes Toni. “I just wish you had a date.”
“She might if she tried.”
We all turn at the sound of Mrs. Dawes’s voice.
“Don’t start, Mom.”
“But, honey, you’re a beautiful girl if you’d just let yourself be. I mean, wear something feminine, make yourself attractive like Jax here.”
Something snaps inside me. Mrs. Dawes’s tone is too much like my Aunt Silda’s. “Don’t do that.”
Mrs. Dawes turns a surprised expression toward me and my tone. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t compare Toni to me. She’s beautiful just the way she is.” Sometimes being what others consider flawlessly beautiful is a type of curse, but it comes with being a post-Salem witch. With great power came great beauty, for all the witch families who have survived into the present.
“It’s okay, Jax,” Toni says, resigned. “I’m used to it.”
Mrs. Dawes doesn’t say anything else, but her look says she and Toni will be continuing this discussion later. “Well, I’ll leave you girls alone. Have a good time tonight, but don’t be out too late.”
“We won’t,” Paige says in a small voice, a little more scared of Mrs. Dawes than either Toni or I.
When her mom reaches the bottom of the stairs, Toni turns and slowly walks toward the window.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
Toni shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. You’re not the first person Mom’s compared me to and found me lacking.”
“But that’s not fair.” Paige sinks onto the end of the bed.
“Hey, life’s not fair,” Toni replies. “It’s not fair my dad died and made Mom overprotective. It’s not fair she can’t accept me for who I am. But, hey, I’m pretty lucky all things considered.”
She doesn’t sound like she feels lucky, and I can’t blame her. I know something about family expectations and not living up to them.
“Does she think being in a band is a bad influence or something?” I ask.
Toni turns toward me. “You could say that. You see, Jane Austen didn’t have pink streaks in her hair and didn’t play drums. And I’m supposed to be the next Jane Austen or Willa Cather or somebody literary and famous. You know what Toni is short for? Antonia, as in
My Antonia
. And my younger sisters’ names? Charlotte and Emily, as in Brontë.” She shakes her head. “I could talk until my tongue falls out and she’d never understand that I just want to be in a band. I don’t want to go to college and be an English major.”
“Maybe you could do both?” I ease out the question so I don’t appear to be taking Toni’s mom’s side. “Maybe not major in English but music.”
Toni starts shoving money and her ID into her jean pockets. “Maybe, but it feels like giving in. And I hate giving in to pressure.” She looks up at the sound of an engine outside. “The guys are here.” She spins back toward us, a big Toni smile plastered on her face, one that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Let’s go rock The Barn.”
We hurry down the stairs and out the front door before Mrs. Dawes can say anything else that might dampen the fun of the evening. And I’m in the mood for some fun. I can be careful and still have a good time. This new life might not last long, so I’m determined to enjoy it while it does.
My nerves spark and jump around inside me like thousands of firecrackers. Before this night is over, I may be in Keller’s arms dancing. At the moment, I can’t think of anything I want more.
Keller and Eric stand next to Keller’s truck.
“Good evening, lovely ladies,” Eric says as he bows in courtly fashion. He’s about to say something else when he comes out of the bow to find himself face to face with Paige.