The Challenge Box

by Isobel Bird

  Book

  14

  The Challenge Box

  Isobel Bird

  Contents

  PerfectBound Special Feature

  Make Your Own Challenge Box

  Chapter 1 Cooper pushed open the door of Crones’ Circle. . .

  Chapter 2 There’s no way, Kate thought grimly. . .

  Chapter 3 “What do you mean you’re not going?”

  Chapter 4 Annie looked over at Cooper. She was asleep.

  Chapter 5 Kate woke up on Saturday morning wishing. . .

  Chapter 6 “I can’t believe people are up this early. . .”

  Chapter 7 Kate was glad that she’d packed extra socks. . .

  Chapter 8 Cooper watched as Juliet hung the painting. . .

  Chapter 9 “How are we supposed to know which rock. . .”

  Chapter 10 A sea of faces. That’s what Annie saw.

  Chapter 11 I feel like I’m twelve again, Kate thought. . .

  Chapter 12 Cooper stood at the side of the stage, looking out. . .

  Chapter 13 Kate was trying very hard to color within the lines.

  Chapter 14 “That’s the house where they shot a season. . .”

  Chapter 15 Kate walked down the aisle and took a seat. . .

  Chapter 16 “I am so glad you guys are back.”

  Chapter 17 Tuesday night came much more quickly. . .

  About the Author

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Make Your Own Challenge Box

  At the center of The Challenge Box is, of course, the box from which Annie, Kate, Cooper and the others draw the final challenges they will face before their initiation into Wicca. These challenges represent things that the girls need to do in order to test themselves and make sure that they’re ready to commit themselves fully to Wicca.

  Well, you can create your own challenge box and use it for a similar purpose. We all have challenges in our lives, and facing them is what helps us grow as people and learn about ourselves and the world around us. You don’t have to be studying Wicca to take advantage of this fun exercise—you can do it whenever you feel like presenting yourself with an adventure.

  Undertaking the challenge you choose from your Challenge Box is the difficult part. The easy part is making the box and coming up with the challenges. We’ll discuss making your Challenge Box in the next step. Right now let’s focus on the challenges. For those, you can simply write different things on slips of paper. What kinds of challenges do you use? That’s up to you. Maybe you’re trying to choose from among several different projects you’re interested in working on, or perhaps you’re trying to pick something new to learn about, but you find yourself overwhelmed by choices. Write these things down on slips of paper and put them in your box, using the slip you draw from the box to help you make your decision.

  If you want to be more adventurous and accept a challenge you might never have considered, you can use the following list of challenges as a starting point. Write them on slips of paper, using all or just some of the challenges listed here (feel free to add your own to this list as well). Some of them suggest you try specific things, like learn to sing or write a story. Other challenges are purposefully less specific—like "make others aware." These challenges are designed to awaken your imagination. If you draw a challenge that doesn’t seem to point you in a specific direction, take time to think about it. Think about what it might be saying, and about how you might be able to work with it. For example, if you choose "create change," there are many different ways of answering that challenge. You could make some kind of change to your own life. But you could also work to make changes in the lives of others, or in the life of someone in particular. Part of the fun of taking on a challenge is in finding different ways to successfully complete it.

  Choose some or all of the following to put into your Challenge Box:

  accept a truth

  allow yourself

  ask a question

  fulfill a dream

  make others aware

  begin again

  believe in love

  enjoy belonging

  build a home

  care for your body

  celebrate your strengths

  take a chance

  create change

  choose a path

  make a commitment

  show compassion

  conceive a new project

  create a community

  dance for joy

  dare to fail

  defy expectations

  embrace desire

  discover a new place

  do something new

  awaken from a dream

  embark on a journey

  embrace your difference

  emerge into the light

  connect with family

  feed your hunger

  forgive a mistake

  celebrate with friends

  fulfill a promise

  give yourself a present

  allow growth

  heal an old wound

  inspire someone else

  invite joy into your life

  join a new group

  begin your journey

  call in joy

  spread kindness

  laugh at yourself

  stand in the light

  listen for a call

  live with fierce joy

  let someone love you

  allow the magic

  make music

  nurture your dearest dream

  observe your anger

  open your heart

  own your fears

  plan for the future

  plant a garden

  play like a child

  praise your loved ones

  make and keep a promise

  question your beliefs

  take time for quiet

  enjoy spiritual rebirth

  receive a blessing

  reclaim your power

  recover a lost relationship

  reflect on what you want

  rejoice in your success

  release your fears

  remember a kindness

  renew a friendship

  risk losing it all

  search for your true self

  share your life

  allow yourself to shine

  let yourself sing

  share your spirit

  teach others

  thank someone who helped

  accept touch

  trust someone fully

  let your path unfold

  weave a new circle

  welcome a new friend

  withdraw and reflect

  experience wonder

  write your story

  Once you’ve come up with the challenges you want to use, you’ll need something to put them in. Your Challenge Box doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You can just put your slips of paper in a plain old bowl and choose one. But it can be fun to make a special container for holding your challenges.

  What you use for your box is up to you. You can use an old coffee can or other can, a cardboard box, a tissue box, or any other container you like. You can even make a fancy box out of wood or metal if you want to. All that’s important is that you be able to put the slips of paper inside without crowding them and making it difficult to reach in and choose one.

  Once you have your container, decorate it in a way you like. If you want to paint mystical symbols on it, go right ahead. Cover it with material. Glue fun things like shells and plastic animals to it and paint it gold. Use glitter and stickers and anything else you like. It doesn’t matter what your Challenge Box looks like. What matters is that it’s something you find magical and fun to loo
k at.

  When your Challenge Box is completed, take your slips of paper and put them inside (fold the slips up if necessary). Now you’re ready to select a challenge from it. If you like, you can create a ritual around selecting a challenge. Again, there’s no right or wrong way to do this. If you want to, you can set a magical mood with music and candles. You can even go all out and cast a magical circle and ask your favorite god or goddess to help you choose an appropriate challenge.

  How you select a challenge from your Challenge Box isn’t the important thing—your attitude is. Don’t just grab a slip at random. Really concentrate on why you want to accept a challenge. Prepare yourself mentally for taking on whatever challenge you select, even if it’s something that seems hard or that you don’t understand. Don’t just keep picking challenges because you don’t like the ones you’re getting. Leave it up to fate. Often the challenges we choose are exactly the right ones for us, even when we don’t understand them at first. If you pick something you don’t like, give it a chance. If you approach it with the correct attitude, you’re certain to find that it brings all kinds of unexpected things into your life.

  You can do this ritual once, or you can make it a regular part of your life. Sometimes it’s fun to just pick a challenge and work with it for a week or a month. Sometimes I choose one on the night of the new moon and work with it for the full cycle of the moon until the night of the next full moon. However you work with your Challenge Box is up to you—just have fun!

  – Isobel Bird

  CHAPTER 1

  Cooper pushed open the door of Crones’ Circle, stepped inside, and shut the door behind her. “That is a lot of snow,” she remarked as she removed the black knit hat she was wearing and shook off the stubborn white flakes that clung to her dark blue wool jacket. She ran her hands through her hair, which was suffering from having been confined beneath the hat, and wiped her boots on the mat that Archer had placed near the door to prevent people from tracking snow and dirt across the store’s wood floor. A line of shoes and boots sat beside it, a further hint that the proprietors would prefer their customers to go shoeless.

  “Is it still coming down hard?” asked Annie, who was perusing the latest additions to the store’s stock of books. She had removed her own boots and was walking around in her socks.

  “I took the bus instead of driving,” Cooper told her, bending down to take off her boots and add them to those already lined up by the door. “You can hardly see out there.”

  Annie went to the window and peered out. In the light of the street lamps she could see snowflakes swirling madly, like moths fluttering around a candle flame. On the street outside the shop the snow blanketed the sidewalks, and the fire hydrant on the corner looked like a tiny snowman. More like a snow gnome, Annie thought happily, enjoying the way the snow made everything look enchanted.

  “Is Kate here?” asked Cooper, pulling off her second boot and coming to stand by Annie.

  “She’s in the back,” Annie said. “She’s helping set up.”

  Cooper nodded. “Remind you of anything?” she asked Annie as they watched the snow.

  “You mean Yule?” replied Annie. “I was just thinking that. But this is no magic snowstorm,” she added, referring to the blizzard that had threatened to turn their week at a remote hotel, where they had gone to celebrate the Winter Solstice two months before, into a long winter’s nap of the permanent variety. “This is just Mother Nature giving one final blowout before spring comes along.”

  “Yes,” Cooper said, “but how convenient that it just happened to come along on the night of our big test.”

  “Speaking of which,” Annie said, “they’re all being way mysterious about that.”

  “Big shock,” said Cooper. “Witches being mysterious. I’m surprised they aren’t blindfolding us like they did at our dedication ceremony.”

  “There’s still time,” Annie remarked, laughing.

  “Did you get anything out of them?” Cooper asked her as they turned and walked toward the rear of the store and the room where they held their weekly Wicca study group.

  Annie shook her head. “Not really,” she replied. “All Sophia would say was that we were going to be facing a final challenge. Then she disappeared into the back office and hasn’t come out.”

  “She’s probably afraid we’ll use cunning and guile to make her talk,” said Cooper jokingly. “Or just nag her until she can’t stand it anymore.”

  They walked into the meeting room, where they found Kate arranging cushions on the floor. “Oh, sure,” she said sternly as she saw her friends, “come in when all the hard work is done.”

  “Hey,” Cooper said, pretending to be offended, “I was out there shoveling a path to the front door.”

  Kate laughed. “All right,” she said. Then she pointed an accusing finger at Annie. “But you were definitely skipping out on me.”

  “But you arrange cushions so well,” said Annie.

  Kate snorted. “Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said, sitting down. “I’m immune to your charms.”

  Annie and Cooper joined her on the floor. It felt good to be inside, where it was warm, while outside the snow fell, wrapping the world in cold. As usual, there was incense burning on the little altar in the store, and the air was scented with the rich smells of cedar and sage. In the meeting space, candles placed around the room gave off cheerful light, and soft music played on the store’s CD player, something harplike and dreamy.

  “Can you believe this weather?” asked Kate as they relaxed and waited for the other members of the class to arrive.

  “We were talking about that before we came in,” said Cooper. “It’s very omenlike.”

  “I wasn’t even thinking about that,” Kate responded. “I was just thinking about how cold it is.”

  “Well, we only have to put up with it for three more days,” Annie said. “I can guarantee you that there will be no snow in New Orleans. I talked to Juliet before I came over here, and she said it’s eighty-two degrees there today.”

  “How do you feel about seeing your big sister for the first time?” Cooper asked her, referring to the fact that they were going to New Orleans so that Annie could meet the sister that, until recently, she hadn’t even known she had.

  Annie looked thoughtful. “Excited,” she said. “And scared,” she added after a moment. “I’m glad you guys are going with me.”

  Kate sighed. “I can’t wait to get there,” she said. “I am so stoked about this trip. Thank Goddess my mom has that wedding to cater. She’s so distracted with planning it that I don’t think she quite realizes that she’s letting me go during Mardi Gras.”

  “My mother knows, all right,” Cooper said. “If she reminds me one more time to be careful I think I’m going to start drinking.”

  Annie and Kate looked at her, shocked. “I can’t believe you said that,” exclaimed Kate.

  Cooper rolled her eyes. “Please,” she said. “We are so beyond the days of the after-school special. This isn’t some deep dark secret we aren’t supposed to talk about. My mother had a little drinking problem. Now she’s dealing. I’m not going to pretend it didn’t happen.”

  “So everything is okay?” asked Kate hesitantly.

  Cooper shrugged. “More or less,” she said. “She’s still going to her group. She and T.J.’s mom have really hit it off. I think it freaks him out a little, like they’re planning our wedding when they go out for dinner or something.” She paused for a moment, then looked at her friends with a horrified expression on her face. “You don’t think they are, do you?” she asked.

  “Most definitely,” said Kate, looking at Annie. “I bet they’ve even picked out your dress.”

  “And I bet it’s totally frilly,” Annie said.

  The three of them cracked up, and they were still laughing when Archer walked into the room. She was carrying something in her arms. It looked like a box, but because it was covered with a black cloth they couldn’t tell exact
ly what it was. Archer set it down on a table, then turned to the girls.

  “I’m going to go back in there to help Sophia,” she said. “I don’t want any peeking under here. Got it?”

  Cooper, Kate, and Annie stared at the mysterious item. They all nodded.

  “Good,” Archer said. “And don’t even think about cheating. I’ll know.”

  She disappeared, leaving the girls to sit looking at the thing on the table.

  “What do you think it is?” Annie asked after a moment.

  “I’m going to go peek,” said Cooper, starting to get up.

  “No!” Kate and Annie said in unison, pulling Cooper back down.

  Cooper groaned, but she sat down and didn’t try to get up again. They continued to look at the mystery shape as, one by one, their classmates came into the room and took their seats. Everybody wanted to know what the thing beneath the cloth was, and the room buzzed with their conversations. Then Sophia and Archer appeared from the back room, and everyone stopped talking and looked at them.

  “Well,” Sophia said, her eyes sparkling, “I bet I can guess what you all want to know.” She paused and looked at their expectant faces, not saying anything else.

  “What is it?” Cooper blurted out, unable to contain herself any longer.

  “That is your final challenge,” Sophia informed the students. “Well, let me clarify—it contains your final challenge.”

  She walked over to the table and pulled the black cloth away. Beneath it was a box. But it wasn’t just any box. This box was painted on all sides with beautiful designs. Intricate Celtic knotwork twisted around the top edge, and the center panel of each side was decorated with a different magical symbol. Sophia let everyone get a good look at the box before continuing.

  “A little more than ten months ago, you each underwent a dedication ceremony,” she said. “At that ceremony each one of you selected a word of power from the cauldron. Those words were meant to inspire you on your journey during this past year. They were also meant as challenges. In all likelihood, the words you chose have popped up again and again in different forms, am I right?”

  All around the room heads nodded in agreement. Kate, Annie, and Cooper were most definitely in agreement with Sophia’s statement. The words they had chosen at that ritual—healing for Annie, connection for Cooper, and truth for Kate—had been recurring themes in the many different obstacles they’d each faced while studying witchcraft. In their own ways, each one of the girls had come to understand her chosen word and the importance of it in her life and in her journey.