“You do have the annoying habit of running into me at the worst times possible, Asher,” I said, trailing my finger down his chest slowly as I remembered the first time we’d “accidentally” run into each other. We’d been at the mall and Sascha, Jinx, Jasmine, and I had gone looking for Fallon who’d taken off after having a hissy fit. Asher had claimed the meeting had been an innocent coincidence, but later on, I’d found out that he’d planned the meeting. Still, it was the first time we’d really interacted and even with the horrible timing, I couldn’t ignore the heat between us.
“Annoying?” he asked, kissing me again, this time slipping his tongue against mine. “And how could there be a better time than right now?”
“Is there someplace we could go to be alone?” I asked.
As if on cue, a door opened up just a few feet away, and Brooklyn and Eve stepped out, chatting much too animatedly for such an early time of the morning. When they saw us, they abruptly shut up and walked the rest of the way in silence. As they neared the bathroom, they both turned their attention to us.
“Hey, Asher,” Brooklyn said sweetly.
“Nice to see you again,” Eve said, looking him up and down.
Hello, obvious?
“I’m right here,” I said, annoyed that the dirty duo were once again getting in the way of Asher and my relationship.
Eve narrowed her eyes at me behind Asher’s back. “Why, yes. I suppose you are. I barely recognized you . . . standing on your own two feet and all,” she said, as insincerely as possible.
“Speaking of, how’s your neck doing?” Brooklyn asked, her voice sounding concerned, but her face completely blank.
“I’m alive,” I said between clenched teeth.
Asher looked at the other two girls before pulling me closer to him so our bodies were touching. “Did you two happen to see who did it?” he asked them suddenly.
Eve and Brooklyn looked at each other and then shrugged. “Nope. We were just glad we could be there to help,” Brooklyn said.
“Yeah. It’s horrible to think of what might have happened if we hadn’t come along,” Eve added.
Then the two disappeared into the bathroom, but not before Brooklyn glanced back at the door to her room and said, “It was nice seeing you, Asher.” I looked in the direction she’d been staring and then back at Asher who was still in his bed clothes and up at an unusually early hour for him.
Why was he up so early? And on this floor, too.
“Now where were we?” Asher asked, leaning down for another kiss.
“What are you doing up so early?” I asked instead, pulling myself out of his embrace completely and taking a step back so I could search his face for clues.
Asher closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, he’d changed. The moment we’d been having before Brooklyn and Eve had shown up was over. And we were back to being on separate sides.
“I couldn’t sleep,” he said, less than psyched at the temperature change between us.
“There seems to be a lot of that going around,” I muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“Just that everyone’s acting totally weird right now,” I said.
“Well, sorry to disappoint you,” Asher said, crossing his arms angrily. “Again.”
Then, without saying good-bye, he turned and began to walk away from me.
“Why were you on our floor, Asher?” I asked.
I knew it was going too far and that I should’ve been trying to convince him to come back, talk this thing through instead. But I had to know the truth.
Finally, he spun around, his face twisted up in frustration. “You want to know why I was down here?” he asked me. “I was coming to see if you wanted to get breakfast. Maybe spend the morning together, just the two of us. You know, like you’ve been asking me to.”
I’d officially screwed up. Brooklyn and Eve had appeared, and once again I’d let them get to me. Now Asher was mad and I wasn’t sure how to make things right. Or if he’d even let me try.
“Asher,” I started, but I didn’t know how to finish the sentence, so I let it trail off.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, sounding tired now. “I have stuff to do, anyway. I’ll just see you later, okay?”
But he didn’t wait for a response before taking off down the hallway, and before I could call his name again, he’d slipped around the corner and out of sight.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It was raining. And for the first time since we’d arrived at camp, it didn’t feel like a thousand degrees outside. I was so grateful I could’ve done flip-flops around the grounds. Only, there were puddles everywhere and I would’ve gotten all muddy doing it.
So instead, I showed my excitement by dressing for the occasion, summoning up a beautiful red-and-black-lined cape/poncho-style jacket. It was an amazing find straight from the runways of Milan. Large folds of fabric draped over my arms, and additional material wrapped its way around my neck, securing itself with snaps just above my breasts protectively. A belt cinched the coat at my waist, giving the garment the shape of a butterfly when I placed my hands on my hips.
Below that, I wore black stretchy pants decorated with a strip of black pleather darting straight down the sides of my legs. Nearly reaching my knees were my favorite pair of water-resistant cheetah-print boots, which zipped up the back. They’d keep my feet dry while making me look good on a rainy day.
I pulled the oversize hood up on my head before leaving the safety of the cabin and noted with glee that I looked like a couture Little Red Riding Hood. Considering everything that had been happening lately, I could use a little fashion pick-me-up right about now.
Just because my coven thought I was some crazy-jealous girlfriend monster, and Asher was barely talking to me, and it’s entirely possible that someone wanted me dead, it didn’t mean I had to dress that way. This was one of those “fake it ’til you make it” situations. One of the only times being fake was acceptable.
Making a mad dash for the amphitheater—which had seemed a lot closer until I was trying to avoid getting my hair wet—I listened for the silence that always came along with weather like this. It’s as if the whole universe stopped whatever it was doing and took a moment to listen to the methodical plinking sounds of the rain falling to earth.
Rain equaled rebirth, renewal, and growth. In other words: despite the frizzy hair, it was a good omen. One that I was willing to take.
“Hey guys,” I said, slightly out of breath by the time I got over to where Jasmine, Abby, and Sascha were sitting. They’d all been slightly frosty to me since our last meeting, but I’d decided to bury the past and try to get things back to where they’d been before we’d come to camp. Meaning, less Extreme Hadley Who Thinks Everyone’s Out to Get Her and more of Laid-Back Hadley Who Has a Passion for Fashion. At least when I was around them.
“Isn’t it amazing out?” I asked them, gesturing to the air around us and twirling around happily.
“Are you kidding?” Sascha asked, sounding more like Jasmine than herself. She tried to flatten her hair, but it just bounced back. Humidity had found its first victim. “It’s disgusting out.”
“Noooo, it’s not,” I said, not allowing her comment to spoil my day. “This weather’s magical! And I get to wear my new jacket. You like?” I posed to give them the full effect. “I can zap one for you too, Sascha, if you want.”
But Sascha seemed too annoyed to answer, so I looked over toward Jasmine and Abby to see if they knew what was wrong with our usually perky friend. There, I was met with more frowns and scowls.
“Do you think that anyone actually cares what you’re wearing on a daily basis?” Jasmine asked, her attitude harsher than usual. “You act like you’re some kind of celebrity and that cameras follow you around 24/7 or something. This isn’t a fashion show, Hadley.”
Now I frowned. Well, this isn’t going the way I’d hoped.
“I know
it’s not a fashion show, Jasmine,” I said. “But what can I say? Great clothes make me happy. I wake up every day and ask myself, ‘What should I wear on the runway of life?’ And today I’m wearing power and fabulosity.”
“What you’re wearing is ridiculous,” Jasmine said. Abby snorted beside her but kept her mouth zipped.
What crawled up her butt?
True, it wasn’t unusual for Jasmine to be irritable. Hell, a guy had once asked her if she suffered from PMS year-round and she’d hit him. But this new attitude was something else entirely. Jasmine was being downright ornery, and it couldn’t have just been because of what had happened the other day with Brooklyn.
“Whoa, harsh,” I said, staring at them. “What’s up with you guys today?”
But before they could answer, a few loud claps rang out behind us, commanding our attention. Reluctantly, I turned to see the three counselors standing underneath the bright lights in the middle of the stage. They waited for us to quiet down, and when we finally did, Miss Peggy clapped again just in case we hadn’t gotten her point the first few times.
“All right, to start our day off . . .”
She’d barely gotten the words out when a huge boom cut through the air and we all watched in horror as more than a dozen large crates, barrels, and props that had been piled up in one of the corners of the platform flew across the area and landed on top of them.
“Omigod!” I shouted and was out of my seat before I knew what I was doing.
Sprinting over to the edge of the stage, I placed my hands on the black surface and propelled myself up into a handstand before rolling out of it and ending up just a foot or two away from the pile of rubble. I could hear the others shouting behind me as they raced to join me.
“Miss Peggy! Mrs. B! Are you guys okay?” I yelled out, trying to get a feel for where they might be trapped underneath the debris.
“Get us out!” a voice called back. I wasn’t sure who’d said it, but it was all the encouragement I needed to get moving.
I turned to see Jasmine, Sascha, and Colette coming up on the right side of the stage and Brooklyn rushing over to me on the left. About ten feet behind her, Eve and the other Barbie clones followed.
Not thrilled about my choices in cohorts—between Jasmine’s ’tude and Brooklyn’s general suckage, I was tempted to tell them all to back off—I tried to focus on how we could do what the adults had asked of us. Get them out.
So, in this case, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
“We have to get this stuff off of them!” I screamed at the others as I attempted to pick up the first crate.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Jasmine muttered, but ran up next to me and began to do the same. Neither of us were having any luck though. I was a pretty strong girl, but the crates weighed a ton—too much for me to lift on my own, or even with the help of another twitch.
“What the heck are in these things? Boulders?” I asked, feeling my back strain under the pressure. A few other campers joined me in trying to move the crates, but after a couple of minutes, we hadn’t even made a dent in the mess.
“Stand back and let me blast them off,” Jasmine said, eventually getting fed up. She motioned for me to move out of the way.
I stepped right into her path. “No way! Jasmine, you can’t just blow this stuff up. What if you miss and hit one of them? Or debris flies and hurts one of us?” I said, pointing at the other twitches who were huddled down below the stage. Their eyes were wide and a few seemed on the verge of tears. It was obvious that it was their first time dealing with a crisis.
Fortunately for those who were trapped, it wasn’t mine. This was like old times.
As my eyes continued to sweep around the crowd, I saw Jinx standing all the way in the back of the amphitheater, just inside the covered area. Complete terror registered on her face and she appeared frozen in place. I wanted to go to her, make sure she was okay, but I couldn’t leave the others.
“Who made you boss again, Hadley?” Jasmine asked, taking a step toward me threateningly.
“We don’t have time for this,” I told her, losing my patience. Turning my back on her, I walked to the edge of the debris. “Anyone else want to step up and be the leader here?”
Nobody answered and I nodded before glancing back at Jasmine. We both knew I’d made my point.
“Okay then. Are there any other ideas about how we can get them out of this?” I gestured to the crisis at hand.
“Did anyone check out the other side? Maybe we could pull them out from there?” Sascha said.
I shook my head. “We’d have to climb over them to get there and risk crushing them even more.”
“Should we go get the other counselors?” someone asked from the crowd. I ignored this. We needed to get them out now.
“We could do a spell to get rid of all this stuff,” Brooklyn suggested. “Like, a floating spell or maybe we could make them disappear?”
I hated that so far Brooklyn had come up with the only useful idea, but it was true. Swallowing my ego, I nodded at her and motioned for everyone to take their casting stance.
As we got into place, the crates and props began to shake. The movement was small at first, but as we stood there, it became more noticeable. Then objects actually began to rise from where they’d landed, and I began to look around at the other twitches in confusion.
“Who’s doing this?” I asked, looking around frantically. The other campers looked just as clueless as I was. A few even began to move away. It quickly became clear that none of us had a hand in what was happening.
But if not us, then who?
One by one, each object floated into the air and moved back to its place in the corner. It was as if someone were stacking them there, all orderly and where they belonged. The whole thing was so bizarre, that all we could do was stand there, slack jawed, and watch.
After what felt like forever, we finally saw Miss Peggy and then the other two teachers. Well, parts of them, anyway. First it was just a leg, then a head, and then, Miss Peggy’s shiny vest. When the counselor’s whole body was fully revealed, I noticed that her hand was outstretched as if midcast. She motioned for the last of the boxes, which had been covering the other women, to be deposited onto the top of the heap in the corner.
“What just happened?” I asked them as they brushed the dust and dirt from their clothes.
Mrs. B took out a handheld mirror and reached up to run a hand through her vibrant hair, making sure every strand was perfectly in place. For someone who’d just nearly been killed, she seemed oddly okay with it. Something wasn’t right.
“Was that all a joke? Some kind of prank?” I asked, growing mad at the thought. They had no idea that for some of us, this sort of thing happened all too often. I glanced toward the back of the amphitheater to find Jinx, but she was gone. Case in point.
“If it was, it wasn’t funny,” Brooklyn echoed, sounding just as upset as I was at the prospect.
“No, not a joke,” Miss Peggy said. Then she started to fiddle with one of the pins on her jacket. “Oh, dear. That last barrel ruined my ‘Life’s a Witch’ button.” After a few words, the button went back to looking good as new. “There we go. Now where were we?”
“We were about to tell them about the challenge,” Mrs. B said, attempting to keep the kooky counselor on point.
“Ah, yes!” Miss Peggy said. A stopwatch appeared in her hand and she pressed one of the buttons on top. “Six minutes and forty-eight seconds. It took you almost seven minutes to figure out how to get us out and put your plan into action. Not horrendous, but also not very impressive. It’s like the last week and a half hasn’t happened at all.”
“Is it possible they have brain damage?” Sascha whispered to Abby, though it was loud enough for everyone to hear.
I’d actually been wondering the same thing myself.
“Have a seat, have a seat,” Miss Peggy said then. “More will be revealed.”
Locking eyes with Brooklyn, I realiz
ed we both had the same look on our face. We were skeptical about what was going on and neither of us liked being the brunt of any joke. In any case, we walked off the stage and sat down in the stadium seats.
My heart was still racing over what had just happened, there was dirt on my new cape-jacket, and Jasmine, Abby, Sascha, and Jinx had chosen to sit a few rows behind where I was. The day was quickly going downhill for me.
“What’s going on?” Colette asked, her eyes wide with concern as she finally showed up to class and sat down next to me. She hurriedly explained that she’d been running late and then had run into Jinx, who’d been rushing back to the cabin. It had taken Colette more than five minutes to calm Jinx down and convince her to come back. Sitting on the other side of Sascha, Jinx still appeared shaken, but she was there.
“Settle down!” Miss Peggy said loudly. Slowly, the whispered conversations petered off until the place was silent again.
“We’d like to thank you for bearing with us during our little demonstration,” Mrs. B said. “And please accept our apologies for those of you who were distressed over the situation we created. Soothing spells will be provided directly after this class for those still afflicted.”
“As Mrs. B mentioned, this was a demonstration,” Mrs. Jeanette said, all business as usual. Nothing about her suggested she’d just been trapped under a bunch of heavy crates. Her hair was pulled out of her face and lay in a braid down her back—a style more for function than fashion—and she stood at attention, practicing perfect posture while peering out at us critically. “Or rather, it was a test.”
“A test?”
“Seriously?”
“Are you kidding me?”
Everyone began to whisper to each other, which forced Miss Peggy to quiet us again.
“We wanted to see how well you’d act under pressure,” she explained. “Since you arrived, we’ve been teaching you how to use your powers effectively. It should become second nature to cast when you’re put into a situation that’s potentially dangerous. Yet, when it appeared that we were in trouble up here, you all froze.”
The Witch Is Back Page 19