“Gigi, ma’am, you give the devil your little finger he’s gonna take the whole damn hand,” a girl said with a thick accent I didn’t recognize.
I spun around in my seat just as two girls passed by me, heading straight for the office Landreia was in.
“Savannah.” The second girl shook her head and reached for the door handle.
“Listen, I’m just sayin—”
But whatever she was saying was cut off by the door closing. I turned and peaked through the glass into the office. The two girls had entered without knocking or anything – and the two other adult women let them. Landreia smiled wide at both of them, like they were old friends. I tried to see the two girls’ faces but their backs were to me. I could only tell which was which by the clothes they wore. The one with the accent, who’d been called Savannah, wore black pants and a black and red checkered shirt. The other girl, who’d been called Gigi, wore dark gray pants with a light gray sweater. They both had dark hair, but even from this distance I could see it wasn’t the same shade.
That was it, that was all I had to go on.
My stomach tightened into knots and I gnawed on my bottom lip.
Landreia, the two girls, and the two women turned and looked right at me.
I gasped and waved in a panic.
The woman wearing a suit walked to the door then popped her head out. She smiled. “Saraphina? Please come in now.”
Uh oh. Okay. I stood and tugged on the hem of my oversized black knit sweater. It was big and bulky and fell halfway down my thighs. As I walked toward the office, I just wanted to crawl inside it and live there. Instead, I balled my fists with my sleeves and tried to breathe through the racing of my heart.
Remember what Dr. Troy taught you! Count out of order.
Four.
Eight.
Eleven.
Two.
Three.
“Saraphina, come in!” The older woman with gray hair grinned from her desk.
I paused in the doorway.
“Hi sweetheart,” Landreia wrapped her arm around my shoulders and squeezed. “No need to be worried. You’re all set up and ready to go. I was just telling Mrs. Davis and Principle Strummer about your particular situation—”
“And they have come up with a wonderful idea.”
I frowned and eyed my new foster mother. “Oh?”
Landreia gestured in front of her. “These two girls are going to be your companions here at school. They’ll show you around campus and help you out.”
“Yes, and we arranged that you’ll be in all of their classes,” Mrs. Davis said with a warm smile. “This way you won’t be alone.”
“At least for right now.” The woman in the suit, Principle Strummer, walked back over to stand behind Mrs. Davis. “It’s the end of the semester, so if you’re still enrolled here after the holidays we will reevaluate.”
Semester? Reevaluate? What holidays? I groaned in my mind. I hated that I knew she was wearing a pant suit but didn’t know what a simple word meant. Note to self, ask Dr. Troy why I remember some words and not others.
“Hi, Savannah Grace, at your service.” She held her hand out in front of me, and I noticed her fingernails were painted black. “I promise we’re gonna be fun.”
I felt myself smile and just prayed it was believable. “Thank you, Savannah.”
Savannah winked one bright blue eye and it made something sparkle from her eyebrow. I looked and found little pieces of metal poking out from her skin. She also had a silver metal hoop that hung from the bottom of her nose. I hadn’t seen anyone else with one of those, but it looked cool. Her hair was even cooler. The top was black as night but at the bottom, near the ends, it was a bright ocean color.
“I’m not so sure fun is the ideal word for her, Savannah.” The other girl shook her head but she was smirking. Then she turned to me and pushed her red-rimmed glasses up higher on her nose. Her brown eyes were friendly and calm. She held her hand out to me. “I’m Gigi Corderro.”
I shook her hand. Her skin was several shades darker than mine and it was beautiful. I cleared my throat. “Thank you. I’m Saraphina Proctor, but you can call me Saffie.”
Gigi grinned and her teeth sparkled bright white against the bold red of her lips. “Saffie, that’s such a cute nickname. I love it.”
“Thanks,” I said and my cheeks warmed. I glanced over to Landreia, then to the other adults, then back to the two girls. “So…did they tell you I have amnesia? That I don’t remember anything but my name?”
“Hey, it could be worse. You could not know your name, too.” Savannah wagged her dark, perfectly shaped eyebrows as she rolled her red and black shirt up to her elbows. A black swirly tattoo peeked out on her arm. “But no worries. We’re your girls. We’ll teach you everything you need to know.”
Gigi nodded and it made her hair fall out of its binding. Her hair was dark brown but it faded to a pale golden color at the ends and the strands curled into ringlets. “Right. You can ask us anything. Hashtag judgement free zone here.”
I frowned. “What is…what is hashtag?”
“Yeah, Gigi, what’s a hashtag?” Savannah made a face at her.
“Sorry, Saffie.” Gigi pursed her lips as she thought. “Using hashtag in the context that I just did is just a fun way to emphasize something. So I was really just trying to say this is a judgement free zone.”
“But she had to throw off the girl with amnesia because she can’t stop using hashtags verbally even though they’re typically only used in text messages or on the internet.”
I blinked. Text messages. The internet. These are things I should know. And I still don’t understand what a hashtag is, even though I asked. But they hadn’t laughed at me or given me weird faces. They’d just explained it as best they could, quickly. I liked that.
“So, what do you think?” Landreia whispered. “Want to give this a shot?”
I wasn’t so sure about anything…other than last night I hated the way I felt. Anything had to be better than that. So I pushed my shoulders back and nodded. “I don’t see why not. What’s next?”
“Lunch,” Savannah and Gigi said at the exact same time.
“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Davis pushed her gray hair back and looked down at her watch. “I’m afraid they’re right. That was the bell for lunch.”
Principle Strummer clapped her hands together. “That’s perfect timing. It’ll give you three time to chat before you head into class.”
I glanced over to Landreia. “Okay?”
She grinned and nodded. “Go on, dear. Have a great time. You have my number saved in your phone, so if you need me for anything just call or text.”
My heart fluttered and blood rushed through my body. “O-okay. All right. Thanks. I’ll see you later?”
“Absolutely!” She reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll come by to pick you up after school, unless you tell me otherwise.”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Night, I’ll make sure she texts you at the appropriate time.” Savannah leaned against the door frame and held two thumbs up. “Come on, Saffie. Let’s grub up before we have to go to class.”
Then she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the office. I looked over my shoulder and waved to Landreia but then the door shut in my face.
Savannah hooked her arm around mine and led me through the waiting area I’d been in before and into the hallway. “Don’t worry, Saffie, you’re in good hands.”
Gigi hopped forward and copied her, hooking her arm around my other one. “Both literally and figuratively.”
Heat rushed to my face. They were being so nice to me. “I’m really sorry about all this.”
“Sorry?” Savannah scowled and it made the silver spikes on her eyebrow reflect the lights in the ceiling. “What you got to be sorry for?”
I bit my lip and shrugged. “For making you have to tend to me and show me around. I mean, they put me in all your classes—”
“Oh no, ma’am,” Savannah’s
thick accent rolled off her tongue. “This may be New England but I’m from the South and this is just what we do. Secondly, this was my idea. Not theirs. They don’t get credit for that.”
“What? Really?” My jaw dropped. I looked back and forth between the two girls as we walked down a hallway to wherever they were leading me. “Why would you do that for me?”
“It’s just who we are as people. We help everything we can.” Gigi smiled and it made me realize that she, too, had a silver hoop on her bottom lip. “Abandoned pets—”
“Raccoons stuck in dumpsters—”
“Bears stuck in dumpsters—”
“Butterfly fledglings—”
“Tired bees—”
“Girls who drank too much at parties—”
“Boys who drank too much at parties—”
“Lost tourists—”
“And one time a confused ghost—”
“Though we have no proof of that last one. Just a gut feeling.”
My neck hurt from looking back and forth between them. “And now me?”
“YUP,” they both said at the same time.
“Plus, we’re definitely the nerdiest kids at school.” Savannah giggled. “She’s the valedictorian, I’m salutatorian—”
“I don’t know what those words mean,” I heard myself say out loud before I could stop myself.
“It means that I have the best grades in our entire class and Savannah has the second best grades.”
“Ma’am. I don’t know why you gotta say it like that.”
“Say it like what?” Gigi frowned and pushed a door open. Bright sunlight slammed into us.
“Like you want me to come for your throne,” Savannah drawled. She pulled a pair of big black sunglasses off the top of her head and slid them over her eyes. “I let you have first because I don’t want that pressure and that’s the hill I’m gon’ die on.”
“Why would you want to die on a hill?”
They both stopped and looked down at me.
Gigi pursed her bright red lips and nodded. “I like her, she asks the important questions.”
Savannah snorted then she winked at me playfully. “It’s just a figure of speech. It means I really, really, really mean it. Like I’m totally freakin’ serious.”
Oh. Okay. Or at least that was what I meant to say. Instead, I said “where is your accent from? Where is the South?”
“Tennessee, right near the Great Smoky Mountains.”
“Oh.” Even though I had no idea what that meant or where it was from. I’d have to look at a map when I got home. “What about you, Gigi? Your accent is different.”
“I’m from Montreal, Canada. That’s north of here. Hi, Nadine!” She waved to a random girl with thick rimmed glasses, then turned back to me. “We left because it’s cold as hell up there.”
“Is hell cold?”
Savannah threw her head back and laughed.
“See, all the important questions.” Gigi chuckled. “Oh, that reminds me. In biology this morning we were talking about this fungus called ergot that grows on like rye bread and stuff and if you consume it consistently it can poison you.”
Savannah shook her head. “Thanks for that little fun fact, G, but why are you telling us this?”
“Because some scientists, and people on reddit, think it’s the real cause of the Salem Witch trials. The poisoning can cause the same side effects as LSD, so like, crazy hallucinations and seizures and shit.”
“Whoaaaaa.” Savannah shook her head. “So they’re saying everyone was just on a bad trip?”
“Wicked bad trip, eh?”
No, no that’s not it. I felt a strange sense of conviction, which was weird since I’d just learned about the witch hunt last night.
Savannah stopped walking just outside a big building. “Wait. I’m in your biology class, where was I for this?”
“Drawing fake tattoos on your arm, if I recall correctly.”
She laughed. “Oh yeah.”
I glanced down at the black swirls on her left arm. “That is not real?”
“That one is real, but this is not.” She held her right hand up to reveal an array of pinks and reds that looked like a crystal. “I was doodling.”
Gigi reached out and grabbed the silver handle on a door in front of us, then pulled it toward us. “She’s not a morning person.”
“A morning per—” I gasped and my legs locked in place.
Just through the door was a massive brightly lit room with what had to be hundreds of people inside. They sat at round tables by the dozens. My breath caught in my throat while my pulse thundered through my veins with heavy thuds. None of the students paid me any attention, not even so much as a glance in my direction. I was grateful for it, but I couldn’t get over the noise pounding against my ears.
We’re going in HERE?
I took a step backward but Savannah and Gigi pulled me forward. “I-I-I don’t know—”
“Don’t worry, girl. We got you,” Savannah said with a wink.
Gigi bumped my shoulder with hers. “We’re just gonna grab food and sit down. You don’t have to talk to anyone else if you don’t want to.”
I don’t want to.
I didn’t get another chance to speak or protest their plan before they were half dragging me inside. Just through the doors, we turned and walked to the left toward a wide opening that a bunch of other students were also heading toward. The girls hurried us along, pausing only to grab a couple red trays off a shelf. They moved swiftly, like whatever it is we were doing was something they did often. I blinked and then we were suddenly standing side-by-side at a metal counter with three of those red trays in front of us. Other students were lined up on either side of us, too.
Everyone was shouting.
Laughter filled the air.
And there was music coming from somewhere.
“Saffie?”
I jumped and looked up to meet Savannah’s sapphire eyes. She was watching me closely. My cheeks warmed. “Um…did you say something?”
She chuckled and pointed in front of us. “I said what do you want to eat? For lunch.”
“Oh…um…” I followed her point to the counter where platters of food were spread before us.
“We have a lot of options here, so what do you like to eat? Fav food?”
“I like…I like…”
A cold chill slid down my spine and dread filled my gut. This was an easy question. It was food. Even without my memory, I knew I’d eaten before. At the hospital they’d given me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then Landreia had made spaghetti for us last night... Yet I saw neither of those two things as options. My pulse quickened and sweat filled my palms. I looked for a single item that I recognized but there wasn’t one. I couldn’t even have said what I was looking at.
“Saffie?” Gigi leaned down and whispered in my ear.
“I don’t know,” I said in a rush, not taking my eyes off the food. “I can’t remember.”
Gigi grimaced, her face paling. “Oh, right, your amnesia. I’m sorry, that’s so insensitive of me.”
“Well, guess we better grab one of everything and feast like kings,” Savannah half shouted. Then she looked down at me and made a goofy face. “I am here for this.”
My lips curved at the ends. Something about her wildness made this whole situation seem insignificant. “I like that idea. I am…here for this as well?”
“That’s my girl.” Savannah reached forward and grabbed three triangular-shaped items. “First we have the top of the food chain. Pizza. The kind here at school is not the best, but it’s still pizza. We’ll give you a proper introduction off campus later.”
Gigi giggled as she grabbed a tray of little round objects, a bowl of long finger-shaped items, and a couple sandwiches that had grass sticking out of them. She pointed to each. “The next two food groups: chicken nuggets and burgers.”
Before I had time to inspect these foods, they moved us down the counter, sl
iding our trays along with us. To my surprise, my stomach growled with every few steps we took.
“Rice—”
“Soup—”
“French fries—”
“Pudding—”
“Jell-O—”
“There’s a soft-serve ice cream but it hasn’t worked all semester. If it’s not done after Christmas, there will be anarchy.” Savannah turned and shouted, “Anarchy, I tell you.”
“Savannah—”
“Baby back bullshit, I tell ya.”
I opened my mouth to ask what soft serve ice cream was when I spotted something I recognized. I gasped and dove for it with both hands. “It’s an APPLE!”
A boy standing beside Gigi looked at me like I was crazy, but then again, maybe I was. I didn’t care. Remembering things was so few and far between that I didn’t care to control my excitement. The apple was red and ice cold. It fit perfectly in one palm yet I held it in both hands like it was a prized possession. I grinned.
“I remember apples!” I looked up to my two new friends and found them smiling along with me and my heart warmed. They weren’t making fun of me.
“I wish I felt that way about fruit and veggies,” Gigi said with a dramatic sigh.
“I love fruits…with my fro-yo!” Savannah shouted to…I had no idea who.
Gigi rolled her eyes and nudged me with her elbow. “Come on, Saffie, it’s time to pay. Grab your tray, eh?”
I gripped both edges of my red tray and followed her to the end of the counter where a woman sat next to a machine of some kind. Gigi reached into her pocket and pulled out pieces of paper with green markings on them. OH! That’s money! I dove into the pocket of my own black jeans and pulled out the money Landreia had given me. I held it up but Savannah shook her head as she handed Gigi cash with an old man’s face on it.
“No, ma’am. Lunch is on us today.” She gently pushed my hand back down. “After all, I can’t suggest a feast such as this and then expect you to pay for it. That would be taking advantage of you, and we don’t play like that.”
“Oh…thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, let’s eat.”
“Savannah, scope us out a table on the edge so she doesn’t have to go in there.” Gigi nodded her head toward the room with all the tables of people.
The Cursed Witch Page 5
