Pointy Hats and Witchy Cats
Page 16
Fury made my ears ring. “I’m sure my sister has a better hiding place than that. I was upstairs because I heard a noise! How dare you!”
Quinn didn’t flinch. “This is a murder investigation, and I’ve just found you coming down from the scene of the crime.”
“The crime wasn’t committed today, though, was it?” I asked waspishly.
“No, but that isn’t the point,’ said Quinn.
“Pretty sure it’s my point. That, and my sister is innocent,” I said.
“What were you doing upstairs?” he said calmly.
“Turns out one of the offices was broken into,” I said.
Quinn’s face went slack. Without another word he dashed around me and up the stairs. I turned to watch him go and sighed. Just as he was disappearing, my fellow students and our teacher came back into the dance hall.
Hannah shook her head at me as she sauntered my way. “You just can’t keep out of trouble, can you? I suppose it’s the way the Rhinestones have always done things. Nice going. You have upset a woman who just nearly died.”
She brushed past me with her crony Taylor hot on her heels. Literally. The heels were very high.
France was grumbling too. “I wish you hadn’t done that, but at this point it can’t be helped. Where did the sheriff get to?”
The other students were standing around watching us. It was now far past the time when we usually had lunch.
“He went upstairs,” I said. “I think he wanted to check on one of the offices.”
France knew exactly what that meant. “If all of you will excuse me for a few minutes, I have to go speak with the sheriff.”
Over his shoulder he called out, “We might as well adjourn for the day. Go have lunch and then go home. I don’t think we’ll be getting much else done after all the excitement.” Then he too disappeared upstairs.
“Cafeteria?” Jackie asked.
“Is there anywhere else we can go? I could maybe see if my cousin Lowe wants to join us,” I said.
“Like a girls’ afternoon out. I’ve always wanted to have one of those,” whispered Kelly.
“Should we invite the others?” Jackie asked, glancing over to where Hannah and Taylor were gathering their things. They were even talking to Glory.
“Probably safer if we don’t,” I said. “I have a feeling they’d go with us to the restaurant, order everything expensive on the menu, and then leave us with the bill.”
“True. Let’s go,” said Jackie.
Given how shunned my family was, my grandmother didn’t really like to eat out. Other than on that first day when Lisa and Lowe had taken me around, I hadn’t seen much of the town. I certainly hadn’t had the chance to eat at any of the local restaurants. Now I was excited. Bethel had given me a little spending money in case I needed it. She had called it her hard-earned dung money, and I made a face, taken it, and thanked her.
“My brother actually owns a pasta place,” Jackie said eagerly. “He used to date your neighbor Lisa, but then she dumped him and he still hasn’t gotten over it.”
“Does your mom have any kids who are going to follow her into politics?” I asked.
“Who knows. If Robin could convince Lisa to marry him, I doubt he ever would. She isn’t exactly the political wife type that my mother thinks he should be with. But I also have a younger brother, and there’s still hope for him,” she said with a smile. “We all know that I’m out of the running.”
“Why did Lisa dump your brother?” I asked. We had just finished putting on our rain jackets and boots all over again, and Jackie was leading the way out of the dance hall. I glanced back once to see if Quinn and France had reappeared. They had not.
The rain was still falling, but not as heavily as it had been when Nancy was attacked.
“Neither of them will say why,” said Jackie. “I think Lisa thought a life with my brother would be too confining for her. He hasn’t really dated since. Sometimes he tries to get her back, but she hasn’t agreed. To be fair, she hasn’t dated since they broke up either. I sometimes wonder if that’s why he thinks he still has a chance.”
The streets were pretty empty of other supernaturals; the rain had driven everyone indoors. Luckily it wasn’t far to Robin’s restaurant.
“Here it is,” said Jackie when we reached a little hole in the wall place, the outside of which was blue with a yellow awning. Jackie walked right in.
The hostess greeted Jackie warmly.
“Is my brother in today?” she asked.
“He’s in a meeting right now, but I’m sure he’ll be out soon,” the hostess said.
About half the tables were occupied. Jackie went to one in the back, near the kitchen door. “That way we can smell all the delicious smells,” she said.
“I like this place,” I said, looking around. Everybody seemed friendly, and patrons were having pleasant conversations. A lot of the supernaturals in this village didn’t act like they wanted to get to know me better, but here everyone smiled and waved to Jackie and the rest of us as if we were friends.
“This is my favorite table,” said Jackie. “I know all the servers. I even worked here for a couple of summers. My mom really did almost go off the deep end then.”
“Hey, Jackie. What can I get you?” a server asked. He was gangly and had bright green eyes. Jackie placed our orders, and then the waiter asked, “Will somebody else be joining you?”
“My cousin is coming. She should be here any minute,” I said. The guy gave me a sharp look but didn’t say anything,
Lowe arrived soon afterwards. “Hey, sorry I’m late,” she said as she leaned her soaked umbrella against the wall.
Kelly nodded, while Jackie and I both said hello.
“I haven’t been here in years,” Lowe added. “Thanks for inviting me.”
Jackie handed her a menu and Lowe disappeared behind it just as the waiter appeared with water.
“Here’s some water to tide you over while you wait,” he said, setting down the glasses.
I glanced over at my cousin, only to see that she was keeping the menu glued to her face. Frowning, I said, “Are you going to order anything, Lowe?”
“I haven’t finished looking yet,” she said, the menu still held right up to her nose.
The waiter frowned and placed a water in front of her. “Just let me know if you do end up wanting something. I promise I won’t take away your menu until then.” He winked at Jackie and left.
Once he was gone I said, “What was that all about?”
Lowe slowly lowered her menu, only to reveal a bright red blush staining her cheeks.
“That’s Gill Mart,” she whispered.
“Yeah?” I said, still utterly confused.
“We all went to school with him,” said Jackie. “He was cool.”
“I know that. I . . .” Lowe trailed off and looked desperately around the restaurant, anywhere but at us.
“You have a crush on him,” Kelly whispered. I wasn’t sure if her voice was so low because she wanted to keep the secret or because that was her natural speaking level.
Lowe smothered her face with her hands. “He was so hot in high school. And he’s stayed so hot since then!”
“He was the band geek,” said Jackie. She clearly did not see what Lowe saw.
“It was such a good band,” said Lowe with reverence.
I smothered a laugh. She was totally head over heels for the guy.
“Did you know he worked here?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I had lost track of him and forgotten about it.”
“Did you ever talk to him in high school?” I wondered.
“Only once. It didn’t go well,” said Lowe. She was nearly hyperventilating.
“He better not have been mean to you,” said Jackie threateningly.
“No, it’s a long story. I’m cool now. It was just a little crush. No big deal. I was surprised is all.”
“That’s good,” I said.
“I’
m totally fine. He really didn’t have an impact on me. He’s not that cool any more, I guess,” said Lowe, tossing her hair. “When he comes back I’ll treat him like anyone else.”
“Ready to order?” Gill had returned.
“Ahhh.” Lowe dived under the table cloth. Only her lower back was visible to the rest of us. Too surprised to say anything, Gill turned and frowned at Jackie.
“She has a syndrome,” said Jackie by way of explanation.
“Does that allow her to eat?” he asked.
“I think so. Get her the pasta,” said Jackie. “We will hope.”
Looking utterly mystified, Gill disappeared again.
Lowe found her way back to sitting at the table, her face even redder than before. “What happened earlier, anyway?” she asked, pretending she hadn’t just hidden under the table because of some guy she knew years ago.
We filled Lowe in on the woman screaming outside the dance hall, and how our classes had ended early. Lowe was incredulous. Then furious.
“How could she name Ethel? There’s no way Ethel showed up to kill her. She was probably just imagining it because everyone has been talking about Ethel for weeks,” she said.
“She was pretty convinced,” said Jackie. “I’m not sure she saw anything, though. I think she just wanted to be able to say a name and she knew the sheriffs would believe that one. She was clearly enjoying the drama.”
I kept quiet about the bit where I’d gone upstairs to check on the noise and found that Jonathan’s office had been ransacked.
“That sheriff sure was annoyed with you,” said Kelly, looking at me.
My face reddened. “He doesn’t have any need to be. I haven’t lied to him.”
Everyone at the table was quiet.
“How do you feel about coming back and being the only member of your family who can keep the Rhinestones in the coven?” Jackie asked, turning to me. She was nothing if not blunt.
“I try not to think about it,” I told her honestly. “If I thought about it too much I’d probably start to panic. Lowe should be able to go for her witch cape next year, and that would make a lot more sense. But by then it would be too late for the Rhinestones.”
“Ethel could have passed with flying colors. She was one of the best of us, really,” said Jackie.
“Can witches fly?” It had never occurred to me to ask until now.
“Sure, with the right spells and the right broom. We could also zoom around on tinfoil if we felt like it,” said Jackie.
We spent the rest of the meal laughing, talking, and having a great time. I had never really had girlfriends before, Bailey had made sure of that. Now I was surrounded by fellow witches, and it felt good to be part of something.
At the end of the meal Gill returned. “Let me just clear these plates out of your way,” he said. “I want you all to be able to eat and chat and have enough space without being crowded by mess.” He swept away the debris from our meal and disappeared again.
Lowe sighed. “I’m going to have to come up with a syndrome.”
“Love sick syndrome?” Jackie offered.
“Mad for musicians syndrome?” was Kelly’s contribution.
When the four of us got up to leave, Lowe retrieved her umbrella from where it was leaning against the wall. Gill watched us from the kitchen doorway with an intense look on his face, while Lowe tried to keep it together and get out of the restaurant without doing anything too embarrassing.
Just as we were leaving, Gill made a decision. He came after us and touched Lowe on her arm. “Don’t feel bad. I have a syndrome too.” He gave her the biggest smile ever and nearly skipped away.
Lowe stood there dumbstruck.
“Quick! Tell me a syndrome I might have!” she said.
While Jackie and Lowe were distracted by the effort to come up with something believable, Kelly pulled me aside.
“Be very careful. The Rhinestones being kicked out of the coven only benefits a very powerful few. Most witches want you to succeed.” Her expression was serious and she appeared concerned.
Before I had a chance to ask her which witches were which, she was walked quickly away from me down the street.
“What was that about?” Jackie asked as she came up to me.
“She was just saying bye,” I muttered.
There was a good chance she was also warning me that I might be in real danger. This whole live in a new village, meet my family, maybe get murdered thing was already old.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ms. Mallon was not happy with France for ending class early. To make up for it, she kept us late the next day. Hannah and Taylor were beside themselves with fury.
That was until Ms. Mallon determined that we would start cauldron work that day.
“Apparently the secret to any good potion is the boiling properties of the cauldron and the use of magic salts. They are the basis for any recipe,” Jackie whispered to me as we got to work.
Given that I knew nothing about potions or cauldrons, Jackie could have told me teabags and stilettos were required for a good potion and I would have believed her.
“Do we have to drag cauldrons in here too?” Hannah demanded.
Ms. Mallon turned her sharp eyes on Hannah. “No, we go to the cauldrons. I’m surprised you haven’t heard that particular bit of lore by now.”
We got to work.
I got home that night and made sure my family was busy. My grandmother had retired to her room to read, and Lowe had gone out with Lisa. I had told them I was too tired to go along.
The little white box was still in my room, and I had decided that I had to open it now or never. After getting a few weeks of magic under my belt, there surely must be a way for me to do it.
An hour later I had accomplished nothing. The white of the box was a little streaked from my failed magical efforts, but that was about it.
Giving up at last, I decided I should get to sleep. The middle of the night was upon me, and my eyes were starting to droop. But I couldn’t quite bring myself to stop yet, so I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the box, at a total loss as to what to try next.
Out the window I saw the pasture and the stables beyond. Several of those strange creatures, the unicorns, ambled wide awake around the pasture.
Seizing on a last desperate notion, I jumped off the bed. Moving as quietly as I could, I headed for the back door that led out of the kitchen.
The small box was in my pocket as I let myself out into the back field.
The unicorns were more accustomed to me now, and therefore less likely to kill me than when I’d first arrived in Twinkleford.
Over the last few weeks I had discovered that unicorn dung was so useful because it did so many different things. It was collected at the start of every day, and sometimes a second time. My grandmother kept it in a special room used only for drying it. The air circulation was excellent, so the place didn’t even smell bad.
I told myself hopefully that my grandmother wouldn’t notice if I took the tiniest amount of dung in my quest to exonerate my sister. The unicorns took little notice of me as I walked through the field; they had gotten used to me, and for the most part they accepted my presence.
I took my treasure into the dung hut, where sparkles and twinkles of magic now flared in the darkness. I grabbed one of the special spoons and picked up the tiniest possible amount of unicorn poop.
The box sprang open instantly. With a gasp I peered inside and my heart started to hammer.
Pearls!
But then I frowned. These were not the sort of pearls that were part of a necklace, though they shone a bit in the sparkly light, some with a blue tint and others with yellows and shades of purple.
Then I heard the brush of footsteps outside the hut and quickly closed the box. Stepping out of the hut, I came face to face with a unicorn. He stared at me.
“I’m going. I’m going. Goodnight,” I muttered and trudged away.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
In the meantime, though, deportment class had become a special kind of frustrating. My magic worked in fits ands starts and really more fits than starts.
Given that all the other girls had lived in Twinkleford their entire lives, they had a much better grasp than I did of what was supposed to happen when they looked into a crystal ball, performed a spell, or made a potion. The exact right temperature of the cauldron was a lot harder to achieve than I had thought it was going to be.
At lunch the day after I discovered the pearls, I decided to try and glean some information about them.
“Sometimes I see witches around here wearing jewelry. Is there any magical significance? Like maybe to a string of pearls?”
I congratulated myself on my subtlety and waited for an answer.
Jackie shrugged. “Pearls are pretty enough, but they aren’t one of the designated magical stones. Diamonds can reflect magic, jade can be used in weather, and so on. Pearls doesn’t do any of that. If you put one in a potion it might help in certain specific spells, but that’s about it.”
“Money too,” whispered Kelly. “If you can afford jewelry like that, you’re rich. You’ve probably been a successful witch.”
They had given me some information, but it didn’t explain the pearls I had found, which I had thought might be rare magical gems. Okay, so maybe these pearls had been smuggled into Twinkleford. But I still had no explanation for why they’d been hidden in a spelled box in Jonathan’s office, or if they even had anything to do with his death.
The dancehall was hot when we got back from lunch. The ceiling fan was whirring gently, but I was still sweating. The days recently had been muggy and unpleasant. The swamp had come alive with a mess of bugs unlike anything I had ever seen before.
Ms. Mallon was trying to teach us how, if we took a swig of a potion we had made and then waved our hand in a certain way, we’d be able to create clouds.