by Isobel Bird
She took the bus through town to the waterfront area and got off. Going down the long wooden steps that led to Ryder Beach, she walked along the shore to the far end. The wind coming off of the ocean was cold, but Kate felt a growing sense of excitement as she climbed over the rocks that separated the little cove from the rest of the stretch of sand. The cove was protected by the rock walls that surrounded it on all sides, so it was less windy there. Plus, no one would be able to see them unless they crossed the rocks, and it was unlikely that anyone would do that on a February night.
Annie and Cooper hadn’t arrived yet, so Kate began preparing the space by herself. She took a piece of driftwood and used it to draw a circle in the sand. She drew it far enough away from the water that the waves wouldn’t erase it as they darted up the beach and retreated again. Then she took the small candles from her pack and set them in the sand around the circle. She was putting the last one in when Annie appeared, walking over the rocks.
“It took me longer than I thought to get here,” she said, setting down a bag. “But I brought everything you asked for.”
“Great,” said Kate. “I need more candles.” She opened the bag and took out the candles she’d asked Annie to get. She pushed the glass holders into the sand around the rest of the edge of the circle. Then she opened a box of matches and started lighting them. When she was done, a circle of light filled the cove, casting shadows on the sand and the surrounding rocks.
“Now help me make a smaller circle of stones in the center of the big circle,” Kate told Annie.
They gathered up a number of rocks from around the cove and placed them in the center of the circle. Kate dug a hole in the sand and placed the rocks around it, making a small fire pit. Then she and Annie got some pieces of driftwood and piled them in the ring of rocks. Kate balled up some newspapers she’d brought with her and tucked them beneath the wood. She lit the paper and watched as the flames licked the wood and it started to burn.
“I didn’t know you were a Girl Scout,” she heard Cooper say as she climbed over the rocks and entered the cove. She was carrying three balloons tied to strings, and they bounced around as she walked.
“It’s one of the bonuses of having a dad who owns a sporting goods store,” Kate answered. “You should see me pitch a tent.”
“Well, this is certainly cozy,” Cooper said, looking around. “At least as cozy as it gets on a winter night on a beach. Where do you want these? It took a lot of doing to keep them from flying away on the way here, I’ll have you know. I don’t see why you couldn’t have asked for plain old balloons.”
“I’ll take those,” said Kate.
Cooper handed her the balloons, and Kate wrapped the strings around a stick, which she stuck in the sand. Then she took the robes she’d made out of her backpack and handed them to Cooper and Annie. “I made them big so they’d go over our jackets,” she said as they pulled them on.
“Very witchy,” said Annie, spinning around in the green robe.
“How come I got purple?” Cooper asked.
“It goes with your hair,” Kate teased, flapping the sleeves of her blue robe like some kind of raven. She looked around. Everything was ready. It was time to begin. She motioned for Cooper and Annie to join her inside the circle of candles. They stood at different points in the circle, looking at each other across the fire that was crackling in the center. Above them, the full moon shone brightly in the black sky, its reflection floating on the waves like a giant, pale stone.
“Let’s cast the circle,” Annie said. She and Kate had already planned that part of the ritual, and one of the things that Kate had put on Cooper’s list was a request that she call one of the directions.
Cooper turned to the east and raised her arms high over her head. “East!” she called out dramatically. “Creature of air. Come join us in our circle, and bring with you the inspiration of the wind.”
As if hearing her call, a breeze moved through the cove, making their robes billow out and chilling their faces with its touch. This is a good way to start, Kate thought as she shivered slightly in the cold. It was almost as if the wind had run icy fingers down her back and whispered I’m here in her ear.
Then it was Annie’s turn. As she invoked the south, standing with her hands over the flames, the firelight flickered over her face. “Creature of fire,” she intoned. “Come join us in our circle, and bring with you the flame of passion.”
Kate breathed in the smell of the smoke and let the fire warm her before she turned to face the sea. She held her hands out as if she were embracing the waves and the moon and the entire ocean. “West!” she said. “Creature of water. Come join us in our circle tonight. Bring with you the depths of mystery.”
Annie completed the circle by crying, “North!” in a strong voice. “Creature of earth. Come join us in our circle. Bring to us the strength of mountains.” Kate felt the sand beneath her feet and looked at the rock walls of the cove, trying to feel the presence of the earth.
Facing each other again, they stood for a moment, listening to the sound of the waves and feeling the coldness of the night and the warmth of the fire. Then they sat on the sand around the fire. Kate opened her backpack, which she’d carried into the circle with her, and took out some things.
“I thought a lot about what kind of ritual we should do,” she said. “This whole thing started because I asked for things I really shouldn’t have asked for. So I thought that maybe I could stop what’s been going on by giving some of those things back somehow. But I can’t do it alone. That’s why I asked you each to put something in the fire for me. We’ll give them back by putting them into the fire and letting them burn.”
Cooper went first. She held up a scrap of paper. “This is a piece of one of the Valentine’s Day queen posters,” she said. “You never should have tried to use magic to gain popularity.” She threw the bit of poster onto the fire and they watched it burn up.
Annie went next. She also held up a piece of paper. “This is your chemistry test,” she said. “You should never have used magic to get this grade.” She held the paper in the flames until it caught fire, then dropped the whole thing onto the burning driftwood.
Then it was Kate’s turn. She held up the Ken doll, still wrapped in its red construction paper heart and tied with red ribbon. “This is the big one,” she said, sighing. “I should have known better than to try to make someone fall in love with me.” She took a pocketknife and cut the ribbon, unwinding it from around the doll. She took the ribbon and the paper heart with her name on it and held them in her hand over the flame. “So long,” she said, dropping them into the fire.
They sat for a while watching the fire burn. Then Kate began to sing a chant she’d written for the ritual. She was nervous, and her voice faltered, but she got the words out.
“Fire crackling in the night, take what’s wrong and make it right, burn away what we don’t need, as is our will, so mote it be.”
She sang the chant once more so that Annie and Cooper could learn the words, then their voices joined hers. They sang for quite some time. Kate shut her eyes and listened to the sound. It was soothing, almost hypnotic. Behind their words she heard the voice of the sea as the waves crashed on the beach, and she heard the wind as it sang in the rocks. All the sounds blended together perfectly, and she felt safe and happy.
One by one they stopped singing, until Kate was singing alone. She repeated the chant once more and let the last word hang in the air before dying away. She looked at her friends and smiled. “Now for the last part,” she said.
She took the stick with the balloons tied to it and unwrapped the strings. She gave one to Annie and one to Cooper.
“I thought that since we were giving up things we . . . well, I . . . shouldn’t have asked for, we should kind of start over by asking for more positive things,” she explained. “Let’s each think of something we would like to bring into our lives. Then we’ll put those thoughts into the balloons and let them loose. You
know, like sending out energy.”
They took a few moments to think, holding the balloons in their hands. Then they stood up. Annie held out her balloon. “I wish I could worry less,” she said. She let go of her balloon and it drifted up into the sky.
“I wish I could give people more of a chance,” said Cooper, giving her balloon a little push and sending it off.
“And I wish I could be less afraid of changing,” said Kate. She hesitated for a moment and then let go of her balloon quickly, before she could grab it back. As it sailed up toward the moon, she imagined her fears trailing behind it, leaving her forever.
“Do you think we’ll get what we wished for?” Annie asked.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Kate said. “But if there are any more mice in your kitchen when you get home, don’t tell me about it.”
CHAPTER 16
When Kate woke up the next morning something felt different. She couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but she knew that there had been a change. As she got ready for school, she found herself humming a tune. After a while she realized that it was the chant she had written for the ceremony on the beach. She sang the words to herself as she dressed and thought about the ritual. The fire really had burned away a lot of the things that had been weighing her down. But what had it left behind? She definitely had a feeling of hope that she hadn’t felt in a long time.
That hope faded a little as she walked to school. This was the big test. Had the ritual worked? She was about to find out. If it hadn’t, she didn’t know what she would do. She was out of ideas. Annie was still suspended, and if things kept going wrong, she was going to have a miserable time.
Some of the guys from the football team were hanging out on the steps when she arrived. She approached them nervously, waiting for their reaction to her. But when she walked by, they barely noticed. Only Evan Markson, Scott’s best friend, waved at her, and even he went right back to talking to his buddies.
Maybe it’s working, Kate thought as she entered the building. But she didn’t dare hope for too much. She’d been fooled by the magic before, and there was a chance that it was just waiting to throw something even worse at her. As she walked to her locker she looked for any signs that the boys were still interested in her. She tensed up as each one walked by, waiting for one of them to ask her out or tell her how pretty she looked.
But none of them did, and by the time she reached her locker she was feeling a lot better. Still, she had the rest of the day to get through, so she wasn’t going to consider the ritual a total success until she saw what happened. For the moment, it was time to face her next big challenge—the chemistry quiz.
Tara was sitting in her usual seat, going over her notes. “Hey,” she said when Kate sat down. “Are you ready for this?”
“No,” Kate admitted. “How about you?”
“I studied all last night,” Tara said. “I have got to do well on this quiz. Coach Saliers says if I pass it she’ll knock a couple of days off my suspension and let me play next week.”
Kate pulled out her own notes and went over them. Just to be fair, she had studied a little bit. If she did well on the quiz, she wanted it to be because she’d put in enough effort, and not because of magic.
She looked over her notes until Miss Blackwood came in and started handing out the quiz. When she got hers she turned it over and read through the questions. A few of them she knew, but many of them were totally unfamiliar to her. She remembered going over the material in her notes, but now it was all a blur.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to concentrate on the questions and see if the answers would come to her as they had on the midterm. But the more she looked at them, the more confused she got. The magic wasn’t working.
She’d never been so happy to not know the answers to a quiz. She had to rely on her own knowledge, and she did the best she could. But when time ran out and Miss Blackwood asked for the papers back, she still had three blank places on her paper and was certain about only a few of the questions she had answered.
Miss Blackwood had them work on experiments for the remainder of class while she graded their tests. Kate paired up with Tara, and was relieved when the mixture they made fizzed up and poured over the sides of the beaker. It was the first time she’d been happy to have an experiment go wrong.
Miss Blackwood handed out the quizzes as the students left the room. Tara fidgeted nervously as she waited to get hers, and when the teacher gave it to her she let out a squeal of joy. “I passed!” she said. “That means I can play again.”
Miss Blackwood handed Kate her test. “I’m afraid your news is not as good, Miss Morgan,” she said. “I’m disappointed, especially after your midterm grade.”
Kate looked at her paper. She’d gotten a 62. She tried to look upset, but inside she was celebrating. “I’ll study harder for the next one,” she told Miss Blackwood as she filed out into the hall. But what she really wanted to do was dance all the way to her next class.
At any other time, Kate would have called the day a total disaster. No one singled her out for attention. In addition to her failed chemistry quiz, she had trouble with a problem in math, couldn’t get the colors to come out right on her art project, and in English class she picked the wrong Brontë sister when Mrs. Milder asked her to name the author of Jane Eyre. But instead of being depressed, Kate was elated. She felt normal again. Things weren’t coming to her just because she’d done a spell. More and more, it seemed the ritual she had done with Cooper and Annie had worked.
Then it was time for lunch. As Kate entered the cafeteria, she realized that her biggest test was about to come. She hadn’t seen Jessica or Sherrie all day, and she’d spent only one class period with Tara. She wondered how they would treat her. Walking toward their usual table, she forced herself to act casual.
“Hi, guys,” she said, sitting down next to Sherrie.
“Hi,” they said in unison.
“How’s your costume coming for the dance?” Jess asked her.
“Fine,” Kate said. “I just need to put the finishing touches on it. How about yours?”
“Almost done,” Jessica said. “There’s not a lot to do when you’re wearing a nightgown and slippers.”
“My Xena costume is great,” said Tara. “I look like a real Amazon.”
Kate waited for one of them to say something about her being queen, but none of them did. It was almost as if they’d forgotten she was even running.
“It’s too bad I’m not running for queen,” Sherrie said. “My Scarlett dress is to die for. I even have the accent down. I’ve seen Gone with the Wind so many times now I can practically recite it.”
“Please don’t,” Tara said before Sherrie could begin.
“Oh, Kate,” Jessica said. “We’re all meeting at my house at six on Saturday for predance photos. You and Scott need to be there.”
Scott. Kate had forgotten about Scott. More truthfully, she’d made herself not think about him. She hadn’t seen him all day, and part of her hoped she wouldn’t because she was so anxious about whether or not he’d still be into her. But no sooner had Jessica mentioned him than Kate looked up and saw him walking toward the table.
“Hi, Kate,” he said.
“Hi, Scott,” Sherrie said. “We were just talking about you. Are you all set to escort our little Kate to the big dance?”
“Well, I sort of need to talk to you about that,” Scott said, looking at Kate. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to go.”
Kate felt her stomach clench. She had been afraid that something like this would happen. She knew she had asked for too much when she did the spell to get Scott’s attention. Now that the power of the magic was gone, she knew she would lose him.
“Not go?” said Tara, sounding mad. “Don’t tell me you’re dumping our best friend?”
“That’s right,” added Jessica. “If you hurt her feelings, you’ll have us to answer to.”
Kate was surprised to hear her friends
standing up for her like this. She was even more surprised when Scott said, “No, of course not. It’s just that this football scout called me and wants me to come talk to the coach at his university about a scholarship there next year. It’s the only weekend they can do it, so I can’t say no. It’s a really big deal. But I promise I’ll make it up to her. We’ll have our own Valentine’s Day next weekend—something romantic. Really, Kate, I want to go to the dance with you more than anything. But this is a big chance for me.”
“I say kick him to the curb,” said Sherrie to Kate. “If football is more important than Valentine’s Day, then I think someone’s priorities are a little screwed up.”
Kate looked at Scott. He was giving her a sad puppy dog look that she couldn’t resist. “It’s okay,” she said, weak-kneed with relief. “A scholarship is more important than a dance. And we can do something next week.”
Scott beamed. “I knew you’d understand,” he said. “I told the guys I had the best girlfriend around.” Before Kate knew what was happening, he leaned over and kissed her for a long moment, then pulled away. “I’ve got to go talk to Coach about getting my stats for the university, but I’ll call you tonight, okay?”
Kate nodded, speechless. She was still remembering how his lips had felt on hers and how he had called her his girlfriend. And me with peanut butter breath, she thought. It wasn’t exactly how she’d imagined their first kiss would be, but it was one she would never forget. And given that she’d expected Scott to break up with her once the spell was over, it was the best first kiss she could’ve dreamed of.
“That was so sweet,” Jessica said, sighing.
“But now who are you going to go to the dance with?” Sherrie asked, as usual turning a good moment into a downer.
But Kate wasn’t about to let Sherrie get to her. She put her arm around her and hugged her. “Who needs a date when they’ve got Scarlett, Xena, and Wendy for best friends?” she said.
