by Isobel Bird
“Masquerade ball, huh?” said a boy’s voice.
Kate looked over her shoulder and almost dropped the poster. Scott Coogan was standing behind her, watching her try to pull a piece of tape off her cheek, where it had gotten stuck. She was so shocked she couldn’t respond. All she could do was look at Scott dumbly, like a deer caught in car headlights.
“Sounds like a lot of fun,” Scott continued, seeming not to notice her silence. “What are you going to go as?”
“Well, I was thinking of going as Titania, queen of the fairies,” Sherrie said, giving Scott one of her prettiest smiles. “How do you think I’d look in a pair of wings?”
Does she have to flirt with everyone? Kate thought as she tried to concentrate on sticking the poster to the wall and not looking at Scott. She’d been waiting all day for him to appear, and now that he had she wasn’t at all sure she knew what to do.
“Fine, I guess,” Scott said, barely glancing at Sherrie. “What about you, Kate?” He turned back to her. “What are you going to go as?”
Kate turned around. Still trying not to look at Scott, she fumbled for an answer. “I . . . um . . . I . . .” she said.
“Kate doesn’t know yet,” Sherrie said, moving in between Scott and Kate. “She doesn’t have a date or anything.”
Kate wanted to kill Sherrie. She didn’t know if Sherrie had thrown in the part about Kate’s not having a date as a suggestion to Scott or to make him think she wasn’t popular enough to be asked. But Scott ignored Sherrie, looking over her shoulder at Kate. He smiled, and Kate smiled back awkwardly, feeling like a little kid as she stared into his eyes. “Is that right?” he asked, moving closer.
Kate nodded, looking up at him. Scott was even more handsome in person than he was in her fantasies. He was taller than she was by a good six inches, and his broad shoulders and wide chest filled out his shirt nicely. He even smells wonderful, Kate thought.
“You’re taking Terri Fletcher, aren’t you?” Sherrie said to Scott, spoiling the moment completely.
Kate’s heart sank into her stomach. She remembered the way Scott had looked at Terri in the library, and how they had been laughing at some private joke when she ran out. She thought about how she had wrapped the ribbon around the Ken doll, imagining it was Scott she was tying her heart to. Suddenly she felt like a total fool.
Scott shrugged. Then he looked right at Kate. “We were talking about maybe going, but I don’t think that’s going to work out. You don’t want to go with me, do you?”
“Me?” she squeaked.
Scott nodded. “You know, if you’re really not going with anyone.”
Sherrie turned and looked at Kate, her eyes wide. Kate had never seen her friend at a loss for words before, and she almost started laughing at the expression on Sherrie’s face. But Scott was waiting for her answer, and she had to try to remain calm, even if she really felt like screaming and dancing around the hallway. The spell had worked after all! Scott Coogan was actually asking her to the dance.
“Well, I hadn’t really thought about it,” Kate said, trying to sound relaxed.
Sherrie’s eyes got even wider, and her mouth dropped open. She spun around. “She means yes,” she said. “Yes, she’ll go to the dance with you.”
“Is that right, Kate?” Scott asked, smiling lazily.
Kate smiled back. “Sure,” she said. “I’d love to go with you.”
“Great. It’s a date. I’ll call you later to figure out what we should go as, okay? I’m not so great with that kind of thing, so maybe you’ll have some ideas.”
Kate nodded, biting her lip to keep from saying anything dumb. Scott turned and walked away, and Kate stared at his retreating back, still partly in shock over what had just occurred. As soon as he was out of sight, Sherrie grabbed Kate’s hands.
“I take back everything I ever said,” she gushed. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?” asked Kate dreamily.
“Do what?” mimicked Sherrie. “Only land the hottest guy in school as your date to the most romantic dance of the year.”
“Oh, that,” said Kate. “Just lucky, I guess.” She found herself thoroughly enjoying Sherrie’s shock and bewilderment.
“Wait until the girls hear this,” said Sherrie. “They are going to die.”
She grabbed Kate’s arm and dragged her down the hall in search of Jessica and Tara. Kate couldn’t wait to see the expression on her friends’ faces when they found out that she was going to the Valentine’s Day dance with Scott. But almost as important, she now knew for certain that the spell had worked after all. The magic was real.
CHAPTER 4
I can’t believe it all worked out so perfectly, Kate thought to herself as she lay on her bed later that night thinking about everything that had happened. Jessica and Tara had been shocked at the news of Kate’s date. At first they’d insisted that she was playing a joke on them. But Sherrie, after adding a few flourishes to the effect that, really, it had been all her doing, managed to convince them. And if they still didn’t totally believe it, all of their doubts were erased when Scott stopped by their table during lunch to say hello to Kate.
Of course, there had been the little problem of having every other boy in school still interested in her. She hadn’t figured out what that was all about yet. No fewer than seven different guys had asked her to the dance. Some of them, like Scott, had never even seemed to know she existed before Thursday morning, but suddenly she was the It girl of Beecher Falls High. It was a nice feeling, but a little weird. Kate assumed that her spell had just been too strong.
Maybe I have more power than I thought I did, she thought. Although she had been skeptical about the whole witchcraft thing when she first started reading about it, now that her first spell had worked more or less the way she’d wanted it to, she wondered what else she might be able to do. As an experiment, she pointed her finger at the telephone and willed Scott to call her.
When the phone rang, she jumped and let out a little yelp of surprise. She stared at the phone for a moment as it rang two more times, afraid to pick it up. Then, remembering that it might be Scott, she grabbed it.
“Hello?”
“Hi,” said a girl’s voice. It was Tara.
“Oh, hi,” said Kate.
“Don’t sound so thrilled,” Tara said sarcastically. “Who did you think it was, Regis phoning because a friend needs your help with the million-dollar question?”
“I thought you might be Scott,” Kate admitted.
Tara sighed. “One request for a date and already you’re sitting by the phone,” she said. “I thought you were a liberated woman.”
Kate laughed. “He just said he might call, that’s all,” she said.
“Maybe he will,” said Tara. “In the meantime, have you studied for the chem midterm tomorrow?”
Kate groaned. “I forgot all about it,” she admitted. “Not that studying would help any. I’m hopeless when it comes to that stuff.”
“Well, I need to pass,” said Tara. “I’m going to cram for a couple of hours. If you want to come over, I could use some help.”
“Maybe,” Kate said. “I have some stuff I need to do here first. I’ll call you back in a little bit and let you know, okay?”
She hung up, and almost immediately the phone rang again.
“If you’re ordering pizza, I want extra anchovies,” she said after picking it up, assuming it was Tara calling back to try to bribe her with food, as she usually did.
“Well, I’m an extra cheese man myself, but I’m willing to change,” said a male voice.
“Scott?” said Kate. She felt her face instantly redden. “Sorry. I thought you were Tara. We have this running joke about pizza with anchovies because once we ordered it by mistake and . . . oh, never mind.”
Scott laughed. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I think it’s cute.”
Kate blushed again. He thinks I’m cute.
“I was just calling to see if you
had any ideas about costumes for the dance,” Scott said. “I’m not real good with creative stuff, so I need all the help I can get.”
Kate settled back against the pillows on her bed. Now that they were talking, she was starting to relax a little bit. Part of her still couldn’t believe that she was talking to Scott Coogan about going on an actual date. She thought hard about what kind of costumes they could wear.
“Do we want funny or serious?” she asked. “I mean, we could go as Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, or we could go as Bonnie and Clyde. What kind of mood are we going for?”
“Well, it is Valentine’s Day and all,” Scott answered. “I was thinking maybe something romantic.”
Kate pumped her fist in the air and kicked her feet against the bed. Scott wanted to be romantic! A day before he had never even spoken to her, and now he was talking about her as if they were a couple. Well, practically a couple. And she had witchcraft to thank for it. She thought about Sherrie’s saying that it would take a fairy godmother with a magic wand to get Scott to ask her out. It had been more true than Sherrie would ever know, and it gave Kate an idea.
“I know,” she said. “We could go as Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip from the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. That’s definitely romantic, and it wouldn’t be too much work.”
“Sounds good to me,” Scott said. “What should I wear?”
“I think he wears some kind of nondescript medieval outfit,” Kate said. “I’m sure we can find a picture somewhere online.”
“I’ll get on it,” Scott said.
Kate tried to picture Sherrie’s face when she saw her and Scott the night of the dance. Since the gym would be decorated like the ballroom in Sleeping Beauty’s castle, it would be as if the whole dance had been created just for her and Scott. They’d be the center of attention. She couldn’t imagine anything more perfect.
“I’m really looking forward to this,” she said. “To tell the truth, I was a little surprised that you asked me.”
Scott paused. “I was sort of surprised myself,” he admitted. “I mean, everyone kind of expected me to go with Terri. But then last night I found myself thinking about going with you, and the more I thought about it the more I realized that you were the one I really wanted to be there with.”
Last night, thought Kate. Right when I did the spell. Never mind the forty-eight-hour time frame given in the book. Now there was no doubt in her mind that it was magic that had brought her and Scott together.
“Well, I’m glad you asked me,” Kate said.
She and Scott talked for a while about school and football and what they both liked to do for fun. When Kate finally hung up, reluctantly, she was happier than she’d ever been. She wasn’t sure she could call Scott her boyfriend, but it looked as if things were definitely heading in that direction.
The phone rang a third time, and she picked it up. “Hello?” she said dreamily, still thinking of Scott.
“Thanks for calling back,” Tara said. She sounded angry. “I kept trying to call you, but nobody was picking up call waiting.”
“Sorry,” said Kate. “Scott called. Do you still want me to come over?”
“Don’t bother,” Tara said. “It’s too late now anyway. I’ll finish up by myself.”
She hung up. Kate put the phone down. Why did Tara have to ruin her perfect evening? Kate didn’t see what the big deal was about a little studying. It wasn’t like either of them was going to do well on the test anyway. It would take a miracle for them to get good grades.
Or magic, said a voice in Kate’s head.
She thought about it for a minute. Magic had gotten her a date with Scott. Could it also help her get good grades? It seemed a little greedy to be doing another spell so quickly. Then again, she did need help. It was late, and she hadn’t even cracked her chem stuff. Maybe a little boost wouldn’t be asking too much.
She picked up the spell book and looked through it. Sure enough, toward the back she found a spell for helping the caster excel when tested. “This spell will help someone remember information learned in preparation for an exam,” she read. Plus, the disclaimer at the bottom didn’t say anything about a delay in the effects. Well, she hadn’t exactly learned anything to remember yet, but maybe it would work anyway. After all, she hadn’t followed the Come to Me Love Spell exactly the way it was written, and the effects had been even stronger than planned. This one would undoubtedly work for her.
Ten minutes later she was sitting in a circle of candles with both the spell book and her chemistry textbook in her lap. The spell book told her to close her eyes and picture herself doing well on her exam. She imagined herself in Miss Blackwood’s classroom. She saw the periodic table hanging on the front wall. She imagined herself looking at her test paper and filling in the answers easily. Then she envisioned herself going through the steps of the lab practical, measuring things into beakers and writing down the results.
When she had a good image of all these things being done successfully, she opened her eyes and, holding the chemistry textbook tightly in her hands, read the words of the spell.
Facts and figures, rules and laws,
fill my mind and give me cause
to answer questions, fulfill tasks,
and know the things I shall be asked.
When I’m challenged, give me aid,
to receive a passing grade.
All this knowledge stay with me.
As I will, so mote it be.
I don’t feel any smarter, she thought as she sat there, waiting for something to happen. She tried going over some familiar chemistry formulas in her head. Nothing came to her. But maybe the spell needed time to work. The love spell had taken a little while to get going. It would probably take this one some time, too. She decided the best thing to do was to just wait.
Extinguishing the candles, she returned them to the box. The Ken doll was still in there as well. She took it out, held it in front of her, and kissed it, immediately feeling foolish. She thought about what it would be like to kiss Scott. She was sure he would kiss her at the dance. It would be exactly like the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale come true. She put the doll back into the box, and hid the box in her closet again.
She still wasn’t sure what to do about the chemistry test. The book didn’t say exactly how the spell worked, but it did say that it was meant to help her remember things. There wasn’t time to read all the material that would be on the midterm, though, so she would have to hope things would work out. Just in case it would help, she decided to sleep with her chemistry textbook and notebook under her pillow, hoping maybe the spell would help some of the information stick in her head. It sounded weird, but weirder things had already happened to her.
Kate woke up the next morning with a cramp in her neck from sleeping all night with her head on the chemistry book. As she rubbed the sore muscles with her fingers, she knew she’d made a horrible mistake. She was suddenly very much aware that she was about to walk into a midterm exam for a subject she knew very little about. She didn’t seem to know anything more about chemistry than she had the night before.
Brushing thoughts of the exam from her mind, she showered and dressed. Instead of wearing her usual outfit of jeans and a shirt, she decided to wear something with a little more style, just in case Scott wanted to hang out with her. Pulling on a long black skirt and a form-fitting V-neck sweater, Kate imagined Scott checking her out and liking what he saw. Thinking about him made her feel better, and by the time she left for school she’d forgotten about the exam.
Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara were hanging out by the lockers when Kate got to school. Sizing up her outfit, they looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“Dressing up for your new man?” Sherrie asked. Her voice was pleasant, but Kate thought there was more than a hint of sarcasm in her statement.
“Just trying to keep up with you,” she answered just as sweetly as she put her stuff in her locker. Then she turned to Tara.
“I’m
really sorry about last night,” she said.
Tara looked away from her. “I said it was okay,” she said, but she didn’t sound like she’d forgiven Kate at all.
“What’s up with you guys today?” Kate asked, trying to sound upbeat. “Did someone die?”
None of them said anything, but Kate caught Jessica and Sherrie exchanging a look.
“What?” she said. “What’s going on?”
“You should probably know that people have been talking,” Sherrie said finally.
“Talking?” said Kate. “About what?”
“About you,” said Jess, as if breaking bad news.
“What about me?” asked Kate.
Her friends looked at each other again. Clearly, they knew something they didn’t want her to know. Finally, Jessica sighed.
“You weren’t the first girl Scott Coogan asked to the dance,” she said. Then she looked at Sherrie and Tara before adding, “He asked Terri Fletcher.”
“What are you talking about?” Kate said. “He told me that he had been thinking of asking Terri but that he didn’t.”
“That’s a boy for you,” Sherrie said, butting in. “He did ask Terri. On Wednesday. Then he called her the next day and told her he didn’t want to go with her.”
“How do you know this?” Kate asked faintly. There was a sick feeling growing in her stomach.
“Everybody knows it,” Sherrie said, and Kate couldn’t help but notice that her friend seemed a little pleased with herself.
Kate didn’t know what to say. She felt as if she was being attacked. “I can’t help it if Scott asked me and not Terri,” she said.
“Maybe not,” Sherrie said. “But Terri thinks you set out to get him. And she’s not the only one.”
“What are you saying?” Kate demanded. “Do you think I did it on purpose?” She looked from Sherrie to Jessica to Tara.
