“I’ll be in touch.” She said in his voice.
I locked my front door from the inside, and banged the back of my head once against the wood. The cold from outside followed me in.
I walked to the kitchen to grab the phone, and I dialed Joe’s number while I glanced at the clock on the microwave. It was only eight forty five, so it wasn’t too late to call.
Ms. P. answered. She got Joe for me with a warning that it was getting late. I could hear Joe’s breath crinkle through the receiver.
“Hey,” he said, and then I heard the sound of a door closing. “So, that was easier than I thought it would be. And I know full well how awesome I am, so that really says something.”
“Giara knew,” I said.
“What?”
I sighed into the phone, “She had a version of the protection rune on her notebook, so all those runes you copied are wrong.”
Joe swore, “I’m gonna need a new notebook.”
“For what?” I said. “Joe, you are an Instinct. The more runes you know, the more danger you are putting yourself in. Oh, and me too, by the way.”
“Are you okay?” Joe asked. I didn’t know how to answer that. “How much trouble are we in?”
The weight of the consequences of stealing the notebook seemed to catch up with him, his voice sounded stressed.
“We’re fine, Joe.” I took a deep breath. “Giara was pretty cool about it. You know, if she wasn’t making plans to kill you, I think we would be friends.”
It was true. I didn’t trust her, and every impulse in my body wanted to run away from her. But when I thought about it, I always had the impulse to protect her, to find a reason for her actions and justify them.
Joe laughed, bringing me back to the present. He so thought he was indestructible.
“Yeah, she seemed cool,” he said. “It wasn’t that bad today, not as bad as we thought. It was cool actually to see your mom. She was beautiful, Riz.”
Tears came to my eyes, but I smiled, “Yeah, she really was.”
The silence that fell between us was as comforting as a hug.
I spoke first. “It’s been a long day, Joe. I’m going to bed. Don’t come over.” He started to say something, but I interrupted him. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Alright, I’ll see you then,” Joe said, and then he hung up.
I held the phone against my ear for a few seconds longer, listening to the dial tone.
Giara would be proud.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The sucky part about being a spy for the Grandmothers was that I was already doing what they wanted me to do. I couldn’t fight against being Joe’s friend, and I wasn’t going to teach him any runes. Most days, I almost forgot that underneath the skin on my hand was a contract saying I would betray my best friend.
Things did change between Joe and me, and it wasn’t Joe doing the changing. It was me. I stopped caring about trying to make him like me. I stopped wearing the transformation runes when I was around him, and I always hung out in baggy tee shirts and pajama bottoms.
I even stopped noticing so much when Joe touched my arm or my leg. He was a naturally touchy-feely type person, and I was the only one making a big deal about it. There were things that I didn’t allow happen anymore, like lying down together. We were just friends, for real. I was the one making that line, and I held it closer to what my mom would have wanted than Joe did.
The best thing, the thing that really changed the direction of everything, was that I started hanging out with Meg again. That was the best thing I did.
Meg and I were back, stronger than ever. I started being the friend she deserved, not the lousy friend I had become that year. Actually calling her before she called me, spending time at her house, and going to her swim meets. I was at one of her swim meets about a week after meeting with the moms. Almost all my friends were there, cheering Meg on as we did Julie and Chris when they performed in the school musical. I think our hearts were definitely in the right place, but it messed Meg up more than it helped her, with her stage fright and everything.
Joe was there, but he wasn’t sitting by me, he was sitting by… someone, I don’t remember. I was sitting by Ryan, who was being unusually quiet. This made sense, since I was being unusually loud. Julie and Chris sat on the bleacher step behind me, their conversation echoed in that weird sound-reflecting-on-water thing.
“So, Larissa,” Ryan said, “Do you like…” His voice trailed off.
I had a hard time hearing him over the reflected sound waves, the whistles, and the tinny music that was playing over the loud speakers.
“What’d you say?” I asked him.
“Nothing,” he said, not looking at me.
It was Meg’s turn up. I shouted at her as the swimmers lined up for the race, “Yeah Meg!”
She turned and waved at us, and then pulled at her swimsuit, trying to cover more of her body. I guess bringing a bunch of guys to watch her in a swimsuit wasn’t as supportive as I thought it would be.
“So… how’s your little sister? Phoebe, right?” Ryan said. “She’s six, right?”
Ryan’s voice echoed through the pool. Joe looked over at me.
I looked down at my hands, “No, she’s still five.” At least for another week. Or I guess, technically, forever.
“Did she start Kindergarten?” Ryan asked.
The idea of Fee in Kindergarten rocked through me. For a moment, I saw her finger painting and making friends. I had met Meg in kindergarten. I wondered if some little girl that would have been Fee’s best friend was now lonely without her.
Ryan looked at me, still looking for an answer. The whistle blew, and Meg’s race started. I stood up and yelled Meg’s name hoping that Ryan would move on and talk about something else. Anything else. I glanced over at him, and he was looking behind me with a “What do I do?” expression on his face. I turned to my other side to see who he was talking to, and Joe was looking at him with an ‘I don’t know’ shrug. And here I thought boys didn’t speak silently, the way girls can. Joe glanced at me, saw I was looking at him, and turned back at the pool.
I sat down and put both my elbows on my knees. Meg was a lap down, three swimmers away from first place. Ryan leaned toward me again, but I didn’t look over at him because I was lost in my thoughts. I will never understand boys. Not until the day I die, I swear. He started to say something, but halfway through saying my name he stood up and walked out a painted green door that lead out of the spectator’s area.
I turned back to the pool; Meg was in fourth place, behind another swimmer. “Go, Meg!” I shouted hoping she would hear me and swim faster. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joe stand up a little bit and spin subtly until he was facing the green door. I cheered again, and behind me, I heard the sound of a metal door close. I glanced back to see Joe had left the area as well.
Julie and Chris were very involved in their conversation, and Cynthia and Rachel were texting Emily, who was sick and couldn’t come. No one was looking at me. I reached in my bag and pulled out my notebook. I smiled at all the new runes that looked back at me. I flipped through the notebook, using the post it tabs as a guide, to a collection of runes I called the sneaky section. There were five runes in that section, including invisibility and silence. The rune I was looking for was eavesdropping. I quickly memorized the rune and walked to the wall, my notebook still in my hands. I leaned against the wall nonchalantly so no one would think anything of it and then drew the rune on the wall.
I couldn’t walk through walls, Joe may have beaten me on that one, but I sure as heck could listen through them. Joe and Ryan were speaking. Their voices sounded somewhat flat compared to the echoing sounds at the side of the pool.
“You asked about her sister?” That was Joe’s voice. He sounded angry. His voice echoed through my side of the wall. I quickly drew the rune for silence on my hand next to the eavesdropping rune.
Ryan’s voice was quieter, “What, I was being nic
e.”
“You were being a…” Joe said. “Look, Larissa’s parents are divorced and her dad and her sister live in California, so Riz never gets to see Fee and misses her like crazy.”
“How am I supposed to know that?”
“Well, Ryan, you’re the one who likes her, so maybe you should try and find out things. Especially colossal things like ‘don’t talk about her sister.’” Joe shouted the last bit of that sentence.
There was silence for a second. I bit my lip and looked around. No one was looking in my direction.
“Well, what can I talk to her about?” Ryan asked.
Joe sighed. The eavesdropping rune was about halfway gone.
“Whatever comes natural, I don’t know.”
“What does she like?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t know,” Joe said.
“Whatever, man,” Ryan said. “You know her better than anyone does. What can I talk to her about?”
There was that sighing sound Joe sometimes made when he smiled.
“Um… Riz likes really bad music, like Elton John and Paul Simon,” Joe said. “Simon and Garfunkel. Ulgh. She hates scary movies, oh and… and movies that try to make you cry. But she laughs so hard at Danny Kaye movies that she snorts sometimes. She’s like… not from this era, you know what I mean? Oh, she loves food, the unhealthier the better, oh and anything spicy. She can eat a jalapeño pepper without crying which is a feat she beats me at every time. Um…” there was a crackling sound as the rune began to fade. “…speaks Spanish, but doesn’t like…” Silence, and then the words pounded through again. “Only speak English. And… Dude, I don’t know.”
The rune began to fade, and I started losing words.
“Crap,” I whispered.
Ryan’s voice cuts in. “This is good stuff, I can use this… What else?”
The rune ended completely, the sound of the echoing pool rushed in my ears like someone threw a bucket of water at me. The whistle blew and people started standing up from the two rows of bleachers. I hurried and reapplied both runes, and then stood in front of it, so no one walking past would see them.
On the other side of the wall, I could hear people walking past Joe and Ryan. But they must have moved closer to the wall, because their voices suddenly were a decibel louder through the rune.
Ryan’s voice was the first I heard. “Are you sure, man?”
“Dude, I don’t get why people think we are more than friends,” Joe said. “I don’t like her that way, she’s like my sister.”
I wiped the runelight and walked up to the edge of the stands. Meg was standing with the swim team, a bronze ribbon around her neck. She looked at me and waved, and I smiled and waved back.
I took a deep breath. I put my notebook back into my bag, put it on my back and walked toward the front door. Cynthia and Rachel were right in front of me, still texting Emily. I read over their shoulder their speculation that Julia finally got the hint about Chris, and it was about time.
Apparently, girls like Julia and me are a bit dense when we are hyper-focused on something. Ryan liked me. Me? I didn’t know how I felt about that, except flattered really. Kind of validated, if that makes sense. Was it disloyal to investigate all your options if the person you love doesn’t love you back, at least not more than as a sister?
As a freaking sister?
I walked through the open metal doors. Joe pulled on my sleeve. Ryan was leaning against the other side of the wall.
I smiled at both of them. “Hey guys,” I said, walking closer to them.
Cynthia and Rachel moved past us down the stairs.
“You missed it, Meg ended up in third,” I said.
“Awesome,” Joe said. “Hey, I forgot my bag, I’ll be back in a minute.” He left the hallway, gave Ryan a significant look, and ran his hands through his hair as if he was worried about something.
“So Larissa…” Ryan said. I turned to face him, analyzing his face for a second. This is what it looks like when someone likes you.
I smiled at him, “So Ryan…”
He looked at the wall behind me, as if he didn’t really want to look me in the eye. Avoiding eye contact. Sign number one. He started walking down the hall. I went with him. “I just downloaded Duck Soup...”
“Marx Brothers. Brilliant. That’s one of my favorites.”
Ryan looked at me and smiled. His eyes were dark and he had longer eyelashes than I do. The hallway was clear of people, we were the last ones there.
“So… would you like to watch it with me?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said, “that sounds fun.”
He looked surprised. “I mean… with just me, like a date, kind of.”
“Alright.” I didn’t pause before I spoke.
Ryan smiled. “Really?”
I tucked a strand of my hair behind my ears, and glanced to where Joe had walked through the closed metal doors. I touched Ryan’s arm. “I’d like to go out with you.”
“Tomorrow?”
I nodded.
I heard Joe’s footsteps behind me as I turned away from Ryan and started walking. About a second later, I realized something. Tomorrow was Fee’s birthday.
Way to pick `em, Ryan.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
That night Meg slept over. I told her my mom was out of town. We sat in the front room drowning our troubles in Rocky Road. I, of course, had told her everything that had happened. Meg moved from the ‘go for Joe’ camp to the ‘Ryan’s hot’ camp so quickly, I’m sure she knew Ryan liked me way before I did.
“You knew,” I said.
Meg smiled. “Riz, you are the only one who didn’t. Ryan’s liked you since like third grade.”
“What?” I said.
“He took his sweet time about it,” she said, “but yeah, he has.”
This made me feel, I don’t know, happy. Blind mostly, but happy. That was before I used any runes, and had self-cut bangs. My estimation of Ryan went up.
Then with no warning, Joe walked through the front door. I mean walked through the actual front door with Meg sitting right there.
“Holy...” Meg said, pulling herself up on the couch. Joe looked at me and neither of us knew what to do.
Meg turned to me. “Did you just see…” She looked back at Joe. “Did you …” She put her tiny hand over her face. “This is crazy.”
I sighed, “You’re not crazy, Meg.”
I pulled out my pinky finger for a pinky swear; Meg looked too shocked to know what to do.
“You won’t sell us out to the newspapers, now will you?” I asked.
Meg put her hands on her lap and looked at me as if I just grew another head. “Us?”
Crap. My words were caught in my throat. I tried to explain, but the Grandmother’s hide rune kept my words from spilling out.
“Megan.” I put my hand on hers, and she pulled it close to her neck. “Moon Blossom.” Joe started to move backward, and I pointed at him. “Stay.” There was no way he was leaving me with this mess he created. “Look, I’m still me, still the girl you’ve known forever. I may…” my words fought against me. I persisted anyway. “also just…” I wanted to deny it, hide it, and lie. “kind of be…” But not to Meg, not anymore, “a Witch.”
Saying the words brought me a kind of freedom I hadn’t expected. I smiled, and breathed deeply.
Meg laughed once in disbelief.
“Okay,” she said, and then pointed to Joe, “And what are you, a wizard?”
Joe spoke finally, “we don’t actually know what men are called…”
“Mages,” I said.
Joe looked at me. “Really?”
“Yeah, Giara told me,” I said.
Joe smiled. “Mages. I like it. It’s got a historical vibe.”
“And it’s not a fellowship,” I said, “it’s a society.”
“Society of Mages…” he said.
“Are you guys serious?” Meg yelled. I turned back to her.
“Meg, what does
that look like to you?” I asked, pointing to the protection rune above the front door.
“What, that painting?” Meg asked. “Your mom painted it right?”
“You can’t see it glow?” Joe asked.
“What?” Meg looked confused.
“Like this.”
I pointed my finger against my hand and drew the silence rune. Meg watched and coiled back when I reached for her hand and drew the triangle on hers. The air went stagnant. Meg looked down at her hand.
“I’ve wanted to tell you for such a long time,” I said. “I’m still the exact same girl. I’m just not quite as untalented as you thought before.”
Meg reached up and fingered the small gold cross she wore around her neck.
“It’s not an evil thing, Meg,” I said, “I didn’t make a pact with the devil or sign his book or anything crusablic. It’s just a natural hormonal imbalance. There has been magic on the earth since there have been humans here.”
Meg looked up. “What’s this,” she put her hand next to her face, the rune facing me.
“That’s a rune. It’s an ancient language of marks and dashes that if someone with runelight does correctly, then something happens. Magic happens. This is a silence rune, just me and you are inside it, so no one outside it can hear us.”
“So, Joe can’t hear us,” she said.
“Nope.”
“That’s awesome,” she said.
I smiled. That’s my Meg.
“So that’s why you guys were always whispering and such good friends,” she said. “I always thought you two seemed like members of some super secret club. I guess you are. Are there a lot of you?”
“There are probably a million or so people around the world, but since there are several billion people in the world, yeah we are kind of rare,” I said.
“And there are two in Plymouth,” she said. “And you two are the same age, and basically the same person.”
“I am not nearly as obnoxious as Joe is,” I said.
“No,” she said, smiling, “but you’re close.” She cocked her head; her white blonde hair fell over her shoulder. “Doesn’t that seem weird?”
Funny Tragic Crazy Magic (Tragic Magic Book 1) Page 9