by Isobel Bird
Kate, Cooper, and Annie looked at each other in surprise and delight.
“A new coven,” Annie said. “That would be exciting.”
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Sophia told them. “Archer is a great teacher, and the three of you know her well. This would be a great opportunity for all of you.” She paused. “What do you all think?”
The girls looked at one another for the briefest of pauses.
“Yes!” they all said in unison.
CHAPTER 20
Cooper sat across the table from Amanda Barclay, concentrating on wrapping her pasta around her fork so that she wouldn’t have to say anything.
“How’s your dinner, honey?” asked Mr. Rivers.
“Great,” Cooper and Amanda said at the same time. They looked at one another for a moment, and then Amanda looked away, wiping her mouth on her napkin.
He calls her honey? Cooper thought. I think I’m going to be sick.
It was Monday, the day after the wedding. Cooper’s father had called her that afternoon and asked her to have dinner with him and Amanda that evening. Cooper hadn’t expected him to collect on her promise to him so soon, but a deal was a deal, and she’d had to accept the invitation. Now the three of them were sitting in an Italian restaurant, eating and attempting to make conversation.
“I spoke with Jane’s parents yesterday,” Mr. Rivers said.
That got Cooper’s attention. Jane had called her the previous night to say that her father had spoken with Mr. Rivers, but Jane hadn’t known any of the details. Cooper had been anxious to find out what had transpired. Her own mother had already agreed—if slightly reluctantly—to let Cooper play the tour.
“What did they say?” she asked her father, praying that it was good news.
“They have some of the same reservations your mother and I have,” Mr. Rivers told her.
Here comes the no, Cooper thought, preparing herself for bad news. But at least then your deal will be off and you won’t have to have any more dinners with Newspaper Girl. She glanced at Amanda, and saw with some measure of satisfaction that her enemy had gotten marinara sauce on her white blouse.
“I also spoke with Serena Mao,” Cooper’s father continued. “And she sounds like a trustworthy person. She assures me that she’ll personally see to it that you and Jane don’t get into any trouble on the road.”
“So we can go?” Cooper asked, wanting to believe it was happening but afraid to in case her father was leading up to a letdown.
“You can go,” Mr. Rivers said, smiling.
Cooper was so happy she almost knocked her water glass over as she jumped up to hug her father.
“Thank you!” she said. “You are the best.”
“That’s why I’m your manager,” her father told her.
Cooper sat down again. She still couldn’t believe it had all been finalized. Even after her father had agreed that she could do it, she’d been convinced that something would happen to ruin it—like Jane’s parents would say no, or Betty Bangs would change her mind. But now it all seemed to be falling into place.
This is going to be the most amazing summer of my life, she thought excitedly. She couldn’t wait to get home and call Jane so they could start making plans. Oh, and we’ll have to write some new songs, she told herself, her mind suddenly filling with all sorts of things that needed to be done.
“You haven’t heard the best part,” Mr. Rivers said.
Cooper looked at him. “There’s more?” she said. What else could there possibly be? Her dream had just come true.
Mr. Rivers looked at Amanda. “Do you want to tell her?” he asked.
Amanda nodded and turned to Cooper.
If she tells me they’re getting married, I’m going to die right here, thought Cooper, her heart pounding. What other kind of news began with a statement like the one her father had made?
“I spoke to an editor friend of mine today,” Amanda told Cooper.
They’re not getting married, thought Cooper with relief. She didn’t care what else Amanda had to say as long as it didn’t involve wedding plans—at least not wedding plans with Cooper’s father.
“He works at Rolling Stone,” Amanda continued.
“Uh-huh,” said Cooper, turning back to her food and ignoring Amanda.
“He’d like me to do a story on the Bitter Pills,” continued Amanda. “They want a feature article on up-and-coming bands featuring young women. I pitched him you and Jane, and he loved it. I’m going to follow you guys on the road for a while and write about your experiences.”
Cooper stopped eating and stared at Amanda. “You’re going with us on the road?” she said, dumbfounded.
Amanda nodded. “For a week,” she said. “I’ll write about you and some of the other bands.”
She’s going on the road with us, Cooper thought miserably. Amanda is going to follow us. Then another part of her brain kicked in and she thought, For Rolling Stone. We’re going to be in Rolling Stone.
“We’re going to be in Rolling Stone?” she asked Amanda, sure she’d somehow misheard her.
“Five thousand words,” Amanda said. “And pictures.”
Cooper looked from Amanda to her father and back again. She was overwhelmed with mixed emotions. Was this the same Amanda Barclay who had caused so much trouble for her the year before?
“I thought it might help make up for what happened last year,” Amanda said, smiling shyly.
Cooper looked at her. Had she been wrong about Amanda? Was there perhaps more to her than Cooper had seen? If Dad likes her, there must be, she thought. Maybe you need to give her a chance. You know, kind of like Annie and Kate gave you a chance. Look how that turned out.
Cooper returned Amanda’s smile. “It’s a good start, anyway,” she said.
An hour later, Cooper was back home. The rest of dinner with Amanda and her father had been okay. They had talked some more about the tour, and Cooper had discovered that—as her father had tried to tell her—she and Amanda did have a few things in common. It turned out that Amanda was very familiar with Scrapple’s music, and had once interviewed Betty Bangs for a newspaper piece. She’d always wanted to write about music, and the piece she was doing about the Bitter Pills would be her first big assignment for a magazine. She was excited about it, and talking to her made Cooper even more excited about the possibilities for the summer.
Less exciting was the prospect of telling her mother about her father’s involvement with Amanda Barclay. Cooper knew the time had come for her to bring it up. If Amanda was going to be writing about her and Jane, Cooper thought it was only fair that her mother know how the connection had been made. So when she came downstairs and found her mother sitting in the living room and reading, she decided it was time for them to talk.
“How was dinner?” her mother asked, closing her book and setting it on the coffee table.
“Good,” Cooper said. “Actually, it was great.”
“How’s your father?” Mrs. Rivers asked her.
“He’s fine,” said Cooper. “He worked things out with the Goldsteins and Serena Mao, and everything is on for the tour.”
Her mother nodded. Cooper took a deep breath, wondering how she was going to bring up the issue of Amanda. Her mother had been through so much with the divorce and what came after that Cooper didn’t want to do anything that might make her depressed or unhappy. But she had to say something.
“And how was Amanda?” asked her mother.
Cooper’s mouth hung open in surprise. She looked at her mother, who had a slight smile on her face.
“How did I know?” Mrs. Rivers asked.
Cooper couldn’t speak. She was so shocked to hear her mother say Amanda’s name that she didn’t know what to say. “Yeah,” was all she could manage.
“Your father told me,” her mother explained. “Well, he didn’t exactly tell me on his own. I saw them out together one night when Mary and I went out to dinner. He and Amanda came into the same r
estaurant. So I asked him.”
“You did?” Cooper said, amazed.
“Oh, not in front of her or anything,” Mrs. Rivers said, laughing. “I waited until the next day. I’m afraid I wasn’t as nice as I might have been about it.”
“You and me both,” Cooper said, thinking of her reaction to seeing her father with Amanda. She hesitated. “How are you about it now?”
Mrs. Rivers shrugged. “It’s not the easiest thing in the world,” she said. “But I’ve lived through worse. Besides, if he wants to go out with some skinny ditz with a bad dye job, who am I to complain?”
Cooper suppressed a laugh. She was making a conscious effort not to think terrible things about Amanda. But she couldn’t resist giving her mother a conspiratorial grin. “I see you’re handling it well.”
“I can think of worse ways,” her mother replied. “Besides, I’ve gotten better. You should have heard what I said to Mary about her.”
Cooper rolled her eyes. “I can only imagine,” she said, having heard T.J.’s mother dissect more than one person with her sharp tongue.
“I don’t want you being mean to her, though,” said Mrs. Rivers. “If your father likes her, that’s what matters. Besides, maybe it’s just a phase.”
“Maybe,” Cooper said. She would tell her mother about Amanda’s Rolling Stone article later. For now she was just glad she didn’t have to keep her father’s relationship a secret.
“I’m going to go upstairs,” Cooper said, standing up. “I have to talk to Annie and Kate about some initiation stuff.”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that,” said her mother.
Cooper looked at her questioningly. “What about it?” she asked. “You’re okay with it, right?”
Mrs. Rivers nodded. “Yes,” she said. “But I’m afraid I haven’t been entirely honest with you about something.”
Cooper sat down again, looking at her mother. What was she talking about?
Mrs. Rivers cleared her throat. “Your grandmother was a witch,” she began. “I know I’ve told you that I wasn’t really sure where she learned what she knew, but I do know. She learned it from her mother, who I’m sure learned it from her mother before her. Yes, a lot of what she knew was just basic Scottish folk magic. But there was more to it than that.”
Cooper was fascinated. All this time she’d thought that what her grandmother practiced was simply small rituals and customs she’d learned growing up. But apparently there was more that she didn’t know.
Mrs. Rivers got up and went to the desk that sat against one wall of the living room. She opened a drawer and took some things out. Coming back to the couch, she sat down and held the items in her lap. Cooper could see that one of them appeared to be a book of sorts. Her mother kept the other clasped in her hand, and Cooper couldn’t see it.
“This was your grandmother’s,” she said, handing the book to Cooper. It was a small leather-bound volume. There was no title on the soft, worn cover, but when Cooper opened it she found page after page covered in fine, neat handwriting.
“It’s her journal,” Cooper said after reading a little bit of one page. She looked up at her mother. “She’s written all kinds of things in here—spells she did, incantations—all sorts of things.”
“I know,” Mrs. Rivers told her daughter. “I found it in her things after she died.”
“This is her Book of Shadows!” said Cooper, realizing what she held in her hands.
“I thought you might like to have it,” her mother told her. “I remember her mother having one, too, but I don’t know what ever happened to it. Probably it’s been lost. But I’m sure a lot of what’s in Mother’s journal was copied from her mother’s.”
“This is fantastic,” Cooper said, running her fingers over the pages. “Why did you keep it if you were so against the idea of being a witch?” she asked her mother.
Mrs. Rivers shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she said. “There were many times when I was going to throw it out. Once I even started to burn it. But something stopped me every time, a feeling, like there was a reason to save it. Now I guess I know what that reason was.”
Cooper was almost crying. She knew what it must mean to her mother to give her the Book of Shadows. It meant that she accepted Cooper as a witch. Even if she herself didn’t really understand the draw of magic, she was embracing her daughter’s decision to follow her grandmother into the Craft.
“There’s something else,” Mrs. Rivers said. She opened her hand and Cooper saw something resting in her palm. It was a necklace, a talisman of some sort on a black cord.
“What is that?” asked Cooper, taking the necklace from her mother and holding it up for closer inspection.
“Your grandmother did have a group she practiced magic with,” Mrs. Rivers said. “Every week she and some of her friends would gather at our house. I don’t know what they did, really. I tried to stay away from it. I suppose they were—”
She couldn’t finish the sentence, so Cooper did. “A coven,” she said. “Grandma was in a coven.”
“Yes,” her mother said. “I suppose she was. Anyway, they all wore this talisman. One of the women made jewelry, and she created it.”
Cooper looked at the talisman. It was circular. All around the circle ran an intricate line of knotwork. It had one central cross-shaped image surrounded by eight smaller knots. The design was unbroken, twisting and turning around on itself to form the image.
“It represents the Wheel of the Year,” said Cooper, who had seen a similar design in a book. “Each of the smaller knots is one of the sabbats. The cross is one of the oldest Celtic images.”
“Your grandmother always wore that,” Mrs. Rivers told her. “She gave it to me right before she died. I think that’s the first time I saw her without it. I remember when some of her friends who were still alive came to the funeral, they were all wearing them.”
“It was her coven symbol,” Cooper said, closing her fingers over the talisman. Having her grandmother’s Book of Shadows was remarkable enough, but having the necklace almost meant more to her. She reached up and felt the pentacle that she wore around her own neck. It had caused her a lot of trouble, but it also made her feel very powerful, and very much a part of the Craft. It was a symbol of her commitment to Wicca, and wearing it was a constant reminder of how far she had come. She knew that the talisman she held must have been very important to her grandmother.
“I’ll wear it at initiation,” she told her mother.
Her mother nodded. “Your grandmother would be proud of you,” she said. She looked at her daughter for a long moment. “And I’m proud of you, too.”
Cooper gave her mother a hug. “Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”
When she pulled away from her mother, both of their eyes were wet with tears. “I wish she could see you now,” Mrs. Rivers said.
“She can,” Cooper said. “I’m sure she can.”
CHAPTER 21
Annie handed Eulalie the flowers she’d brought with her. They were roses from the wedding, a dozen of the nicest ones arranged in a pretty vase. Eulalie took them and inhaled the scent, a smile spreading across her wrinkled face.
“Reminds me of home,” she said. “Was it a good wedding?”
“The best,” Annie told her.
Eulalie nodded. “You’ll have to tell me all about it.”
“Next time,” said Annie. “I have to get back to the house. We’re taking Juliet, Becka, and Grayson to the airport. But I wanted to stop by and tell you that you were right about my initiation.”
“You don’t say,” Eulalie remarked, looking extremely satisfied with herself. “How so?”
Annie nodded at the painting on the wall. “We’re all staying together,” she said. “The three of us. It was just like you said—we had to remember the things that had brought us together in the first place.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Eulalie said, nodding. “The three of you belong together. I haven’t even met these frie
nds of yours, but I know that much.”
“I’ll bring them by to see you when I come next week,” Annie told her. She bent down and kissed Eulalie’s soft cheek. “But now I have to go.”
“When’s your initiation?” Eulalie asked as Annie turned to leave.
“Thursday,” answered Annie.
Eulalie nodded again. “We’ll be thinking about you,” she said.
Annie smiled. “Tell Ben hello,” she said as she left the room.
Back at her house, she helped load Juliet’s bags into one car and Becka’s and Grayson’s bags into Grayson’s rental car. Aunt Sarah and Meg rode with Grayson, while Juliet, Becka, and Annie took the other car. Annie got to drive, which made her feel very grown-up, even though she knew her aunt was watching her like a hawk from Grayson’s vehicle.
“This week was so much fun,” said Juliet as they traveled down the highway to the airport. “I can’t wait to see the pictures.”
“Your costumes made the wedding,” said Annie. “Everyone loved them.”
“I know I love mine,” Becka said from the back-seat. “I’m going to wear the ears to school tomorrow.”
“Speaking of school, I can’t wait for it to be over,” Annie commented. “Then you guys can move here for good.”
“Is that going to be weird?” Juliet asked Becka. “Leaving San Francisco, I mean?”
Becka shook her head. “There are things I’ll miss,” she said. “But this already feels like home.”
Annie caught Becka’s eye in the rearview mirror. She was thrilled that the two of them would be living in the same house soon. It already felt like they were sisters.
“And you’ve already got friends here,” Annie said, thinking of Kate, Cooper, Sasha, Jane, and the assorted people they hung out with.