by Isobel Bird
Annie was waiting for her again at her locker, and Kate felt a stab of guilt as she found herself hoping that Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara wouldn’t see them talking. She still wasn’t sure how she was going to handle her friendship with Annie. She really liked her, but she had to admit that Annie was something of a liability when it came to maintaining a reputation.
“Looks like you have some competition,” Annie said.
“I know,” Kate said. “What do you think it means?”
“Either that our ritual is working or that people really don’t want you to win,” Annie said.
“That makes me feel so much better,” Kate said. “Thanks.”
“I told you it would take time to know for sure,” Annie responded.
“Yeah, well, in the meantime I’m taking this back to the library,” Kate said, holding up the spell book. “I want it as far away from me as possible. Want to come with me?”
She and Annie walked to the library. Inside, Kate put the book into the return slot at the desk and let out a sigh of relief as she heard it hit the bottom of the collection box with a dull thud.
“At least that’s out of my life,” she said as she and Annie left.
As they walked to chemistry, Kate tried not to notice the hostile glances she received from some of the people passing by. As a result, it wasn’t until she and Annie were halfway up the stairs that she saw none other than Terri Fletcher coming toward them going the other way. Kate thought about turning around and going back down the stairs before Terri saw her, but it was too late. There were too many people coming up behind her.
As Terri passed Annie halfway down the stairs, she gave a sudden lurch and tumbled forward. Kate watched in horror as Terri’s mouth opened in a scream and her hands went out in front of her in an attempt at grabbing the handrail. But it was too late, and a moment later Terri was falling. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion, with Kate frozen and unable to do anything but watch as Terri appeared to fly by her and land on the floor in a heap. When Kate finally came to her senses, her ears were filled with the sound of screaming.
“My ankle!” Terri cried. She was lying at the bottom of the stairs, her books and papers scattered around her like leaves. She was holding her leg, and her face was contorted in pain.
“My ankle!” she wailed again. “I think it’s broken.”
Several students had rushed over when they heard Terri screaming, and she was surrounded by a growing group. As they bent over her, trying to see what they could do, Terri looked up at Annie and pointed a finger at her.
“She pushed me,” Terri said. “I felt her push me.”
Like Kate, Annie had stopped when she heard Terri scream. Now she was standing on the stairs looking down at Terri and the others.
“I felt someone push me when I walked by,” Terri said. “I know she did it.”
At that moment, Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara came around the corner. They saw Terri on the floor, cradling her leg. They saw Kate and Annie standing on the stairs. Kate opened her mouth to say something, but she knew it was too late. She could tell by the looks on their faces that they thought Annie had pushed Terri.
“It was an accident,” Kate said helplessly. “She must have slipped.”
“No,” Terri shouted. “I know she pushed me.”
Kate ran up the stairs to where Annie was standing, unmoving. “I think we should get out of here,” she whispered, and when Annie didn’t move she grabbed her arm. “Come on.”
Annie allowed herself to be pulled up the stairs, away from Terri and everyone who was coming to see what had happened.
“I didn’t push her,” Annie said, leaning against the hallway wall.
“I know that,” said Kate. “But no one is going to believe you.” She pounded her fist against a nearby locker. “Why is this happening?” she said. “Every time something even remotely good happens, something terrible has to happen right afterward. I don’t understand it.”
“I think you started something that’s gotten out of control,” Annie said. “I think the spells you did are magnifying somehow, and the ritual we did to stop them just made things worse.”
“But how do we stop it?” Kate asked. “If this keeps up, they’ll be tying us to stakes on the front lawn.”
“I think we need help,” Annie said.
“Help?” said Kate. “Who is there to help us?”
“Well, you came to me because my name was on the list of people who’d checked out the book,” Annie said. “I know I wasn’t the first one to check it out. Do you remember if there were any other names?”
Kate thought. “I just noticed yours because you’d checked it out so often.”
“We have to find out who else has taken that book out,” Annie said. “Let’s go to the library.”
They couldn’t get to the library by going back down the stairs. They could tell there was still a lot of commotion going on, and it sounded as if Terri was still crying. They had to take the long way around. Fortunately, no one who saw them seemed to connect them with what was going on.
“Probably they’re all still standing around Terri, listening to her blame you,” Kate said.
“At least they’re out of our way,” Annie responded. “Let’s just find the book and get out of here. I hope they’ve reshelved it already so we don’t have to ask for it.”
They were in luck. The book had been put back on the shelf. Annie opened it and took out the circulation card.
“There’s a signature here,” she said, “but I can’t read it. It’s been crossed out.”
“Someone didn’t want anyone to know they were reading this,” Kate said. “I can’t say I blame them.”
Annie took a piece of paper out of her notebook and laid it across the circulation card. Then she took her pencil and lightly rubbed it over the paper.
“What are you doing?” Kate asked.
“It’s a trick I read about in a mystery novel,” Annie said. “You rub the pencil over the paper and the impression of what’s underneath shows up.”
“How very Nancy Drew,” Kate said. She watched as Annie rubbed, and soon she saw a name emerging through the pencil marks. “Can you read it?” she asked.
Annie held up the paper and looked at it. “It looks like Cocker or Copper or something like that,” she said.
Kate thought for a minute. “Could it be Cooper?” she asked.
Annie squinted at the paper. “Maybe,” she said. “The writing is really messy. But yeah, it could be Cooper. Cooper Riv-something.”
“Rivers,” said Kate dully. “Cooper Rivers.”
“You don’t sound too thrilled,” Annie said, putting the card back in the book.
“Cooper Rivers is one of the most antisocial people at Beecher Falls High School,” Kate said unenthusiastically. “Her mother teaches in the elementary school. We were in fourth grade together.”
“And she pushed you down on the playground or made you eat chalk or what?” Annie asked. “You make her sound like a juvenile delinquent.”
“No,” said Kate. “She’s just kind of strange. You’d probably know her if you saw her. Thin. Short hair that changes color about once a month. Currently pink, I believe. Wears Hello Kitty T-shirts and vinyl pants. Hangs out with the rock-and-roll crowd that smokes behind the building.”
“Oh, her,” said Annie. “I’ve seen her around.”
“Then you know what I mean when I say she isn’t exactly the most approachable girl in school,” Kate said.
“I still think we need to try,” Annie said. “I read somewhere that magic grows more powerful when more people are doing it. Something about raising energy and all of that. Maybe Cooper’s the thing we need to fix this once and for all. Besides, strange is in the eye of the beholder, remember?”
Kate knew Annie was right. They had to try something. They hadn’t been able to reverse her spells by working together. Maybe they did need someone else. But Cooper Rivers? If Kate and Annie were unlikely cand
idates for trying out witchcraft, Cooper was even more of a long shot. Still, they were running out of options. And Annie was right about not making assumptions. Maybe Cooper wasn’t all that bad.
“All right,” Kate said. “But you do all the talking.”
“Fine,” said Annie. “So, where do we find this Cooper Rivers?”
“My guess is one of the music rooms,” Kate said. “She’s really into playing the guitar.”
The school’s music rooms were in the basement. Kate and Annie walked down the row of doors trying to peer through the small panes of glass that served as windows to see who was inside. Finally, near the end of the row, Kate stopped.
“That’s her,” she said.
Annie looked in and saw a girl sitting on a stool, a guitar in her hands. A pair of headphones sat on her head, pushing down her hair, which was indeed dyed bright pink. She was mouthing some words, and her eyes were closed.
“Here goes nothing,” Annie said, and pushed open the door.
CHAPTER 9
“You’d better have a really good reason for doing that,” Cooper Rivers said as Annie and Kate barged into the practice room. At the sound of the door opening, she’d stopped singing and looked up to see what was going on. “I just about had the last lyric I need to finish my song.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Annie said.
“Yeah, sorry,” added Kate. “We didn’t mean to ruin your concentration.”
“Great. Now that we’ve established that, can I get back to what I was doing?” Cooper started to put her headphones back on, but Annie began talking.
“Wait,” she said. “We need to talk to you.”
Cooper rolled her eyes. “No, I don’t want to buy candy bars to support the chorus,” she said. “No, I don’t want to sign a petition trying to get the cafeteria to go vegetarian. No, I don’t want to get involved in student government. ’Bye now.”
Annie looked at Kate. “What do you know about witchcraft?” Annie said to Cooper.
Cooper stared at them for a moment without saying anything. Kate held her breath, waiting to hear the response. Cooper looked at Annie, then at Kate.
“Nothing,” she said sharply. “Now, get out of here and let me get back to my song.”
“I think you do,” Annie said, staying put. Kate was surprised at how forceful Annie was being. She would have been happy to leave Cooper alone. But Annie was pushing.
“Look,” said Cooper. “I don’t know who you are. I don’t care who you are. And I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about.”
“You mean about witchcraft?” Annie said, emphasizing the last word.
“Right,” said Cooper, meeting her gaze. “About that.”
“Well, we do,” Annie said. “We’ve been doing some spells.”
Kate was horrified that Annie had given out so much information to Cooper, who clearly didn’t want anything to do with them. Cooper didn’t respond to Annie. She just sat there, her green eyes revealing nothing and her guitar resting against her hip.
“We’ve been doing some spells,” Annie said again. “And they haven’t been coming out quite right.”
“Sorry to hear it,” Cooper said sarcastically. “Maybe you should ask Santa and the Easter Bunny to help you out.”
Kate could tell that the conversation was going nowhere. “Come on, Annie,” she said. “We made a mistake. Let’s go.”
“We didn’t make a mistake,” Annie said. “She’s just scared.”
“What are you talking about?” Cooper said angrily.
“You’re scared,” Annie said. “I don’t know why, but I know you are.”
“You’re out of your mind,” Cooper said. “I don’t even have the first clue what you’re talking about. There’s no such thing as witchcraft.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Annie said. “It’s real. And I think you know that. But if you don’t want to help us, that’s up to you.”
Kate waited for Cooper to respond. A long minute went by during which no one spoke. Finally, Cooper said, “Sorry. Like I said, I can’t help you. Try someone else.”
“We don’t need someone else,” Annie replied. “We need you. If you want to help us, come to this address Friday night at nine. We’ll be there.” She ripped out a piece of notebook paper, wrote her address on it, and held it out to Cooper. Cooper didn’t take it.
“You’ve got the wrong girl,” she said. “Keep it.”
Annie folded the paper in half and tossed it into the open guitar case at Cooper’s feet. “Just in case you know who the right person is,” she said.
Kate and Annie left the practice room, closing the door behind them. Annie was angry, and as they walked down the hallway she kept stopping and turning, as if she wanted to go back.
“I know she’s the one,” she said, balling her hands into fists. “I just know it.”
“What do you mean, she’s the one?” Kate asked, not understanding. “The one what?”
“The one we need,” Annie said. “There’s a reason her name is in that book, and there’s a reason we need her help. Just like there was a reason for you to come ask me for help.”
“A lot of good that did,” Kate said, leaning against the wall.
“Yeah, well, it was nice meeting you, too,” Annie said.
“Calm down,” Kate said, surprised at the vehemence of Annie’s response. “You know what I meant. Why are you so mad about this?”
“Because that girl knows something,” Annie said, still fuming. “She knows something, and she’s holding out on us. We’ve got to get her to come to my house Friday night.”
“Right now we need to get to class,” Kate said. “I just hope the whole thing with Terri has settled down a little.”
The thing with Terri had not settled down. Within half an hour of her accident, the story had spread all over school, and the most popular version of the story had Annie shoving Terri and then running away. It hadn’t helped any that Kate and Annie had both skipped chemistry. That just made Annie look even more guilty, and for the rest of the day Kate felt like she was harboring a known criminal.
“I can’t believe you’re standing up for that freak,” Sherrie said at lunch. “You were there. You saw what happened. There’s no way Terri just fell. Someone pushed her.”
“I’m telling you, Annie wouldn’t do that,” Kate said, wishing she’d decided to sit with Scott like he’d asked.
Kate didn’t know what else to say. She knew that Annie had had nothing to do with Terri’s accident. But if she tried to defend her, Sherrie and the others would think that Kate had done it. Everything was falling apart, and there didn’t seem to be any way to fix it.
“Face it, Kate,” Jessica said. “You have a stalker.”
“What?” asked Kate.
“A stalker,” Jessica repeated. “This Annie wants to be just like you, so she’s trying to impress you by taking out your competition. I saw a movie like this on Lifetime once. Valerie Bertinelli played this single mom who was really nice to a babysitter she hired to watch her kids. The next thing she knew, all of her neighbors were turning up dead.”
Kate knew that nothing she could say would make her friends think anything but what they already believed. She took a bite of her sandwich and chewed it furiously. She knew that Annie was eating lunch by herself, but she didn’t dare even turn around to look for her. Getting back into her friends’ good graces had been hard enough; she couldn’t risk alienating them again.
As she ate, her thoughts turned toward Cooper Rivers. Annie was so sure that Cooper was the missing piece of the puzzle. But how could she know that? She hadn’t even known who Cooper was until Kate had told her. Yet she had seemed almost frantic to get Cooper to talk to them earlier. Did Cooper really know something, or was Annie just grasping at straws? Kate didn’t have a clue. She’d been through so many ups and downs in the past week that she didn’t know what to think anymore.
“Earth to Kate,” she heard someone say
, and immediately all thoughts of Cooper went out of her head.
“What?” she said.
Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara were staring at her.
“I asked what you and lover boy are going to the dance as,” Sherrie said.
“Oh,” said Kate. “I don’t really know yet. We haven’t had a lot of time to discuss it.” Of course, she had already talked about it with Scott, but she didn’t want anyone to know what her idea was yet. She wanted it to be a surprise.
“Well, you’d better decide pretty soon,” Sherrie said. “The dance is next Saturday night. We’re going shopping for costumes this weekend. You’re coming, right?”
“Sure,” Kate said, trying to sound cheerful. “Definitely.”
“Good,” said Sherrie. “It will be the old gang together again.”
“We were starting to worry about you a little,” Jessica said to Kate. “You know, what with all of your new interests. We thought maybe you didn’t want to hang with us anymore.”
“What new interests?” Kate said.
“You know, Scott and studying for chemistry tests,” Tara said. “We haven’t seen much of you lately.”
“I’m sorry,” Kate said. “I’ve just been really busy. But I promise this weekend we’ll all hang out.”
“We can start Friday night,” Jessica said. “We’re having a sleepover at my house.”
“Oh, I can’t do Friday night,” Kate said. “I have other plans. Sorry.”
Her three friends looked at her. “Other plans?” Sherrie said. “They wouldn’t happen to involve a big stupid football player, would they?”
“No,” Kate said, anxious to keep the peace. “They wouldn’t. I have to do something with my parents. But I’m definitely on for Saturday shopping.”
“You’re the only person I know who spends Friday night with her parents,” Tara said. “I’m not sure if I think that’s cool or insane.”
Again, Kate felt terrible about lying to her friends. But there was no way she could tell them that she was staying over at Annie’s house. They’d think she was a traitor for sure, and until she and Annie were able to fix whatever had gone wrong with the spells, she wasn’t taking any more chances. Besides, she really did miss her friends. The past few days had been hard on her.