The Five Paths

by Isobel Bird

  “Well, I hope you work it out,” Jessica told her. “He seemed nice.”

  Kate smiled. I hope we do, too, she thought sadly.

  “You’re going to play on the team this year, right?” asked Tara. “We’re finally on the varsity squad. And this year I’m keeping my grades up so I don’t get benched like I did last season.”

  Kate had been thinking a lot about basketball. She really loved playing. It was something she was good at, and it made her feel confident about herself. Moving down the court with the ball in her hands and then going up for a basket gave her a feeling she’d only ever experienced when doing a really good ritual. It was like she was filled with energy and power and could do anything she wanted to.

  She, Jessica, and Tara had played together since junior high. Last year things had been rough because Kate had stopped hanging around with them. She hadn’t enjoyed practice, and even though she’d done well in the games, she hadn’t had a very good time. Over the summer she had decided that she wouldn’t play this year because it made her uncomfortable to be around her former friends. It had been a difficult decision, but one she thought she had to make. Even though she’d signed up for gym, which basically meant she was intending to play on a sports team, she still hadn’t made her final decision.

  But now everything had changed. Now they were all getting along again. She could go to practice and feel like she used to when the three of them worked as a team. She’d missed that, and she was glad to have the opportunity to get it back.

  “Oh, yeah,” Kate said, feeling happier than she had in a long time. “I am so there.”

  “Jess and I are going to train in the fall intramural league. You have to come, too. That way we’ll be ready when the season starts for real,” Tara said eagerly.

  “I’m just bummed that most of the games are going to be on Tuesdays,” said Jessica, putting the lid on her container and starting to peel a banana. “I was going to work Tuesdays at the restaurant. It’s bowling league night, and you’d be amazed how well those guys tip. But I’m giving it all up to be with you guys.”

  “You’re such a giver,” Tara said with mock sincerity.

  “Tuesdays?” Kate said, a horrible feeling beginning to grow inside of her.

  Jessica nodded. “I checked out the schedule on the coach’s door this morning.”

  “You don’t sound happy about that,” said Tara. “Is there something wrong with Tuesdays?”

  Kate wasn’t sure what to say. Tuesday night was the night her Wicca study group met. There was no way she was going to stop going to that. But she really wanted to be able to start her basketball season early. Giving that up now that she was looking forward to it again was going to be really tough, but not as tough as explaining to Tara and Jessica why she was giving it up.

  “I don’t know if I can make Tuesdays,” she said carefully. “I’m already committed to something else on that night.”

  “What could be more important than basketball?” Tara asked. “You’ve never missed a game. Remember that time you had the flu and still played? You made seventeen points and then threw up in the locker room. The coach was furious at you for not telling her you were sick.”

  “Yeah,” said Kate, remembering the game well. “But we won, didn’t we?”

  “Exactly my point,” Tara replied. “So what’s this other gig you’ve got going?”

  “Nothing exciting,”Kate answered, trying to sound casual. “Just something I said I’d do. I’ll see if I can get out of it.”

  “You’d better,” said Jessica. “Now that Linda Thomson has graduated you have a good chance of starting in games, and this fall season will give you even more of an edge. None of the juniors from last year are nearly as quick as you are. We need you, Morgan. Don’t let us down.”

  Jessica said the last part of her statement in an imitation of Coach Saliers, their junior varsity coach. It sounded so much like her, and like something that she would say, that Kate and Tara howled with laughter. As they laughed, Kate glanced over and saw Sherrie glaring at them. She was tempted to give her a little wave, but she resisted the urge. Sherrie was beaten. There was no sense in rubbing it in. Kate had what she wanted, and she was content to let Sherrie lick her wounds.

  But that didn’t solve her problem of what to do about the team. How was she going to be in two places at one time? It just wasn’t possible. She couldn’t think about that now, though. It could wait. She was having too much fun being with Jessica and Tara to let that ruin things.

  “I have to ask you something,” Jessica said after they’d calmed down a little. “It’s about your buddy Cooper.”

  “Cooper?” said Kate. “What about her?”

  “Well, I heard something about her,” Jessica said.

  “Oh, no, she’s into guys,” said Kate before Jessica could finish. “A lot of people think she isn’t, though, because she’s kind of a loner and all.”

  “It’s not that,” Jessica said, rolling her eyes. “But thanks for the clarification. No, it’s something else.” She paused.

  “What?” Kate asked, wondering what Jessica might have heard.

  “One of the waitresses at the restaurant heard her perform at Big Mouth a few weeks ago,” Jessica said. “She said Cooper did this really great piece. I guess it really blew people away. It was about witches and being burned at the stake or something like that.”

  “And?” Kate asked while thinking, Thank God Annie didn’t use her real name when she performed or Jess would be asking about her, too.

  “Now she’s wearing some kind of occult symbol,” Jessica continued. “You know, that star thing. What’s with that?”

  Kate shrugged. “I didn’t go to the Big Mouth performance,” she said. “And I didn’t notice the necklace.”

  She hoped she sounded convincing. Why did Jessica have to bring this up now? Cooper didn’t think anyone would notice her pentacle, but Annie had told Kate that her boyfriend Brian had said something about it the day before, and now Jessica was asking questions. I knew something like this would happen, Kate thought grimly.

  “Some people are saying she’s into black magic,” said Tara.

  Kate looked up. “What do you mean?” she said sharply. “Cooper would never do anything like that.”

  Tara shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I heard. Some of the girls in my English class said they saw her coming out of that occult store downtown.”

  “Crones’ Circle?” Kate asked, already knowing the answer to her question. “So what? It’s just a bookstore.”

  “I hear they do weird rituals there,” said Jessica. “Cindy Miller bought some kind of candle there that was supposed to bring her good luck, and she said they offered to do a spell for her if she paid them.”

  “They wouldn’t do that!” Kate said angrily. “They would never do a spell for someone for money!”

  She knew that either Jessica had her story wrong or that Cindy had lied. No self-respecting witch would do a spell for money, and certainly no one at Crones’ Circle would ever suggest that.

  Jessica looked taken aback. “Relax,” she said. “It’s not like the people at the store are friends of yours or anything. I’m just passing along information.”

  What Kate wanted to say was, “But they are friends of mine.” She wanted to tell Tara and Jessica that Sophia, Archer, and the others who owned and ran Crones’ Circle were good people. She wanted to tell them that she knew they were good because every week she went there to learn about witchcraft. If she could just tell them that, then she could explain to them why Cooper was wearing a pentacle and what it meant.

  Instead she said, “I’m sorry. It’s just that Cooper gets a bad rap. She’s really nice, but people have all these weird ideas about what she does and what she’s like.”

  “Well, it doesn’t help that she wears that thing and doesn’t talk
to anybody except you and Annie,” said Jessica.

  “You just have to get to know her,” Kate said weakly. But would Jessica and Tara ever really get to know Cooper and Annie? Tara had already spent a little bit of time with them, but she didn’t really know them well. And Jessica had never said more than a few words to either of them. What would happen if they suddenly all started hanging out together? Would all of them get along? Suddenly her renewed friendship with Tara and Jessica didn’t seem as perfect a situation as it had half an hour before.

  “Well, I’ve got to get going,” Jessica said, putting her trash into her lunch bag and crinkling it up. “I’ve got homework already and I need to hit the library for a few minutes.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Tara told her. “I’m going to stop by the gym and pick up a copy of the intramural schedule. Kate? You coming?”

  Kate shook her head. “You guys go ahead,” she said.

  “Okay,” said Tara. “Do you want me to pick you up a copy of the schedule, too?”

  “Sure,” said Kate. “Thanks.” I don’t know if I’ll use it or not, though, she thought sadly.

  “Hey,” Jessica said as she and Tara stood up to leave. “How about a movie this weekend? Maybe Annie and Cooper would like to come, too.”

  “That would be fun,” Kate answered. “I’ll ask them and give you a call tonight, okay?”

  “You’re on,” Jessica answered.

  She and Tara left, leaving Kate alone at the table with her thoughts. What was she going to do? She’d thought that working things out with Tyler was her biggest problem. Now she had a whole pile of problems. Worst of all, it was because something good had happened. Her former best friends were back in her life. Not only that, but they seemed interested in getting to know her newer friends. She should feel happy about that. But her excitement was dampened by the fact that now there was even more pressure for her to figure out how to integrate the two lives she’d been living for the past six months—the one involving Wicca and the one most people thought she was leading.

  She looked over at Sherrie. She was still sitting alone. As Kate looked at her former friend she couldn’t help thinking, Maybe this is worse than anything Sherrie could have dreamed up for me herself.

  CHAPTER 4

  “I can’t believe we’re about to see a movie with the Graces,” Cooper said as she stood with Kate, Sasha, and Annie outside the theater. “Isn’t that one of the signs of the end of the world?”

  “It’s going to be fine,” Kate told her. “Jessica and Tara are great. It was Sherrie who was the problem.” She glanced at Cooper’s neck.

  “Don’t worry,” Cooper said, seeing her look. “I tucked it under my shirt.”

  It was Saturday afternoon. The four of them had just finished having lunch, over which Kate had asked Cooper to keep her pentacle out of sight. She’d waited until just before they were supposed to meet Tara and Jessica because she knew that would give Cooper less time to throw a fit about it. It had been difficult enough convincing her to go to the movie in the first place.

  “I can’t believe your friends think I worship the devil,” Cooper said, leaning against the wall.

  “They don’t think you worship the devil,” said Kate. “They just think you’re weird.”

  “Oh, that’s lots better,” replied Cooper.

  “I’m not the one who told you to wear that thing,” Kate told her. “But I did tell you it would cause trouble.”

  “So a few people saw it and asked some questions,” said Cooper. “Big deal. You got out of it, right?”

  “Yeah, by lying,” answered Kate.

  “And if you weren’t still in the broom closet, you wouldn’t have to lie,” Cooper said triumphantly.

  Kate shot her a look. They had been through this discussion dozens of times, and she knew that they weren’t going to get anywhere going through it again, especially since Jessica and Tara were walking up the street toward them.

  “Be nice,” Kate ordered Cooper, who smiled sweetly.

  “Hey,” Jessica said as she and Tara reached the others.

  “Hi,” Kate said. “You guys know everybody, right?”

  Tara and Jessica nodded. “Hey, guys,” they said.

  “So what are we seeing?” Tara asked, looking at the different movies playing at the theater.

  “I cast my vote for Mel Gibson,” Sasha said instantly. “Very yummy.”

  Annie and Jessica groaned in unison. “No way,” Annie said. “How about the Julia Roberts comedy?”

  “Or the new Shakespeare with Kenneth Branagh?” suggested Jessica.

  “Too arty,” declared Tara. “I’m all over that slasher film they’ve been advertising to death. You know, the one with that girl from the Bioré commercials.”

  “You’re all nuts,” said Cooper decidedly. “How can you pass up a chance to see the director’s cut of Close Encounters of the Third Kind? It hasn’t been re-released since before we were all born.”

  “Not again,” Annie wailed. “Kate, there’s one vote for each film. You’re the deciding vote.”

  Kate looked at the marquee. Then she looked around at her friends. They were all looking at her beseechingly. She knew each of them wanted her to pick the film she wanted to see. But what did Kate want to see? She went over the choices in her mind.

  “Well?” Cooper asked after a minute had gone by. “Will it be dumbbell Mel, airhead Julia, a lot of British people in costumes, a bunch of dead teenagers, or the most brilliant science fiction film of all time?”

  Kate thought some more, chewing on her lip while she looked at the posters for the movies that lined the walls of the theater entrance. Then she looked at her friends.

  “Give me your money,” she ordered. “I’ll get the tickets and surprise you.”

  Grudgingly, they all reached into their pockets and handed her their cash. Kate counted it carefully before smiling and saying, “I’ll be right back.”

  She walked to the box office and returned a minute later with six tickets in her hand. “Here you go,” she said as she handed them around.

  “What’s this?” exclaimed Cooper as she read her ticket. “None of us picked this one.”

  “I did,” Kate said firmly. “You said I was the deciding vote, and this is what I voted for. I think it looks good.”

  The five other girls looked at each other and then looked at Kate. “You’re sneaky,” Jessica said.

  “Next time I get to be the deciding vote,” Sasha added. “And we’re seeing Mel.”

  “Come on,” Kate said, heading for the doors. “It starts in ten minutes.”

  Two hours later they walked out again.

  “I told you it would be good,” Kate said triumphantly. “And wasn’t it?”

  “It was okay,” Cooper admitted.

  “It was more than okay,” insisted Kate. “Where have you ever seen special effects like that before? And George Clooney has never looked better.”

  “All right already,” said Jessica. “So you picked an okay film. It’s not like you solved the Mideast peace problem.”

  “It wasn’t far from it,” commented Kate. “Getting all five of you to agree on something requires about as much negotiating skill.”

  “Hey,” said Annie. “I think we did pretty well for our first time out together.”

  “Me, too,” agreed Tara.

  “So what’s next?” Sasha asked. “Anyone for sodas?”

  They stopped, trying to decide where to go next. Before they could come to a decision someone walked up to them. “Hey there,” said a voice.

  Kate turned and saw Archer standing behind her. She was carrying some shopping bags and was wearing a T-shirt that said BLESSED BE on it.

  “Oh, hi,” Kate said, glancing at Archer’s shirt nervously.

  Annie, Cooper, and Sasha all greeted
Archer warmly. Jessica and Tara looked at her and smiled.

  “These are my friends Tara and Jess,” Kate said, introducing them to Archer.

  She smiled. “Nice to meet you. I was just out running some errands, but now I’ve got to get back to the store. I’ll see you guys on Tuesday, though, right?”

  “We’ll be there,” Annie told her.

  Archer left and Jessica turned to Kate. “That’s one of the women from that store we were talking about yesterday, right?”

  “Um, yeah,” said Kate, suddenly wishing that Archer hadn’t happened by when she did.

  “Is that what you have to do on Tuesdays?” asked Tara. “Something at her store?”

  Kate looked helplessly at Annie and Cooper. What was she supposed to say? She hadn’t thought of a story to tell Tara and Jessica yet, as she hadn’t planned on the topic’s coming up so soon. The silence seemed to stretch out forever as she stood there trying to think of what to say next.

  “Yeah, we go there every Tuesday night,” Cooper said finally. “Me, Annie, and Kate.”

  Kate looked at her in horror. Was Cooper about to tell their secret? How could she? She knew that Jessica and Tara didn’t know about their involvement in Wicca. What was Cooper thinking?

  “We go there for a reading group,” Cooper continued. “You know, a book group. Like Oprah’s. Only this one is all about fantasy and science fiction books. You know, Tolkien, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Frank Herbert. That kind of stuff.”

  Jessica nodded. “I get it,” she said. “That’s how you knew all about the store,” she added to Kate. “Why didn’t you just tell us you were in a reading group? What’s the big deal about that?”

  “I guess I just thought you might think it was sort of weird,” Kate said, relieved that Cooper had come up with a believable story. “You know, science fiction and fantasy are kind of geeky.”