Sea-Witch

by JE Hunter

  Grandma nodded over her shoulder at the cupboard by the fridge. “Find a recipe for chocolate cake. The ingredients are in the cupboard. It needs to be ready in an hour.” Grandma opened the cupboard and pulled out a recipe book, handing it to me.

  I rushed to make the cake, feeling like a contestant on MasterChef. I slapped ingredients together without caring about the mess. It took me longer to clean up the spilt flower, leaking eggshells, and cocoa powder than it had for me to put the ingredients together. I was just finishing washing the dishes—the cake was already in the oven and smelled delicious—when the phone rang. My hands were wet so I couldn't answer it—instead Grandma stopped its shrill ring.

  “Hello.” Grandma pressed the phone to her ear. She looked down at the ground, her eyes narrowed as she listened to the person on the other end of the line. “Yes, she's here, just a minute.”

  Grandma held the phone out to me. I dried my hands before taking it, dragging it all the way into the spare bedroom room.

  “Hello?”

  “Nessa? It's Aaron.”

  My heart thumped. I peaked over my shoulder to confirm that Grandma wasn't there. I closed the door to the spare room as far as it would go, leaving just enough space for the phone cord. “It's good to hear from you.”

  “I hope you don't mind me calling. I got your number from Marnie.”

  I shook my head. “No. No, it's fine. You can call me whenever you want.” I curled and uncurled my fingers around the phone cord, and then reached up and ran a hand through my hair. Aaron was calling me! I was so excited I wanted to squeal like Marnie. I’d spoken to her a couple times since the move, but she hadn’t told me a thing about Aaron. His Facebook page had been annoyingly stagnant. “How are you doing?”

  “I'm good. I was surprised when Marnie told me you moved. You never mentioned it the last time I talked to you.” Aaron sounded exactly as I remembered. My stomach fluttered; I couldn't believe he'd called me. I'd dreamed of him calling me but I never thought it would actually happen.

  “I didn't know I was moving. It was a surprise to me too. A lot of things have changed, I guess. You know, with my Dad dying.” I bit my lip and paused for a moment. “Things are messed up. I have to live with my grandma for a while. She has a house on an island in the middle of nowhere.” I slowly sank down the side of the wall, sitting on the floor. I pulled the phone cord a little bit, stretching it to the max.

  “You know, I’m really sorry about your Dad. I think that would be the worst thing. The worst.” Aaron paused. “The island sounds pretty cool though. What kind of stuff do you get to do out there? I bet there’s some awesome hiking and fishing.”

  And just like that any delusions I’d been harbouring sank to the ocean bottom. I wasn’t the same girl I’d been two weeks ago. I was a sea-witch, now. Suddenly, Aaron felt as strange to me as a stray dog, and also kind of…boring. I bit my lip and swam through the thick feelings that were floating inside me. I still liked Aaron—although my feelings didn’t feel very romantic anymore. “Yeah, the island’s great—lots of long hikes.” I replied, knowing I wasn't convincing.

  “You don't sound like you like it much.”

  “Well, I definitely prefer the city to the outdoors if that's what you mean.”

  “Really? I love the outdoors. I just got back from my family vacation. We went to this remote fishing camp. It was wiked. We, like, hung out and fished all day. I made some friends there. This one girl—Stacey—goes to high school here in Surrey. She caught the biggest fish. It was like, fifty pounds or something. Actually, we’re hanging out tonight, probably going to the beach. I think Marnie will be there.”

  I closed my eyes. He'd met another girl. Somehow, even though I’d just realized I didn’t like him like that anymore—it still hurt. No wonder Marnie hadn’t mentioned him.

  “Great,” I said, hating that my voice was gravelly and that I sounded anything but okay. “Maybe...maybe I'll get used to it out here. Actually, I have to get going, some of the other students arrived today and we're having a dinner party. It's supposed to be really fun.”

  “Nice.” Aaron went silent. I said nothing; the conversation that I'd originally been so excited to have was now awkward and awful. I just wanted to get off the phone.

  “Well, I've got to go.”

  “Yeah...Yeah, me too. Have fun tonight.” Aaron spoke quietly. Maybe he was as sad as I was that we wouldn't see each other any time soon—even if it was just as friends.

  “You too,” I answered, standing up. I held the phone to my ear for a few more seconds. A click told me Aaron had hung up and was off on a date with a girl that wasn't me.

  I stared at the phone. All hope of Aaron being in my life was gone. It was official, being a sea-witch had taken over my life. I fought off the dark cloud that tried to smoother me and punched in Colleen's phone number only to find out her evening had been hijacked too.

  “Yep, I have play hostess all night. The students live in these dorms attached to the school, which is right by our house. The Yorks have always been the caretakers, so of course I'm expected to be a gracious helper and guide. Gracious to pirates; imagine that. It’s ridiculous—especially after what they did. Not one of them can be trusted. Believe me, Nessa, you should stay home if you can, pirates are not worth having in your social circle.”

  The sudden dread of being the new kid weighed on me. “What’s bad about the pirates? Are they like they are in the movies: greasy, greedy, and gropey and stuff?”

  “They're worse,” Colleen said just as Joanna’s disembodied voice yelled for Colleen to come downstairs and set the table. Colleen must have covered the receiver end of the phone, because I couldn't make out her response to her mom. I heard a soft scratching noise and then Colleen was back. “I have to go. You'll meet the pirates when you get here, and you'll want to throw them back in the water just like I do. Maybe with a bit of luck we'll still be able to go to town.”

  I crawled out of the spare room and into the kitchen. Grandma gave me a look that said I was falling behind. I pulled the cake out of the oven and finished the dishes. I barely had time to run upstairs, brush my hair, and throw on my hat and navy hoodie before we left.

  The walk to the York's was short but nice. I was astounded by the beautiful tree covered pathway, which connected the two houses, even though I’d walked this way before. It was easy to imagine I was somewhere pristine, ancient, like a lost temple garden in the Amazon. I carried the still warm chocolate cake firmly in my hands and followed Grandma’s swaying braid. I was careful not to ruin my creation as I navigated my way over a tangle of tree roots—eating a piece of the cake I'd worked so hard to make was the only thing I was looking forward to tonight.

  It took five minutes to reach the York's house. We approached from the back—the front of the York's place led to a dock just like Grandma's—and entered through the small, well kept, grassy yard. The large, two-story white house had a long veranda that stretched across the back. There were French doors leading into the kitchen and many large glass windows. I knew that the boarding house and the school lay a bit further down the path, but I hadn't wandered that far yet. I wasn't in much of a hurry to get to my future, especially since I no longer had an almost-boyfriend, a best friend, or a home to call my own.

  Colleen opened the back door, running out to greet me. “I’m so glad you're here. Mom went over to finish preparing the boarding house and I've had to play nice for, like, five minutes now.” Her face was flush. She was wearing jeans and a bright yellow hoodie that looked great with her short, dark hair. “They're driving me crazy.”

  “Who are they?” I asked, walking up the steps behind Colleen. She stopped me just outside the door, holding my elbow to keep me outside on the porch with her. Out of Grandma’s hearing range

  “They’re pirates, Nessa. And they aren’t nice. Actually, they’re cruel.” Colleen’s face grew a bit paler.

  “What are you talking about?” I shifted the cake in m
y hands; it was getting heavy.

  Colleen glanced over her shoulder, then looked back at me, tugging me to the side, farther from the door. “I’m going to tell you something. It’s really embarrassing so I don’t want you to laugh, okay?”

  I nodded solemnly at her large, dark eyes.

  “Last year was my first year at the school. Even though I grew up on this island, and Mom’s an instructor, I didn’t get to start classes until last fall. Anyway, there was this pirate, Jim. He was the worst, but thankfully he graduated and he won’t be here this year. But anyway, at the beginning of the school year he told two of the other pirates, Caesar and Markus—who are inside right now—that if they wanted to be his friend they had to play a joke on me. One morning, when I was out for a swim, they caught me in a net.” Colleen’s face was growing redder by the second, and when she said this part her eyes began to water. “They dragged me out of the water and hung me up in the dormitory kitchen with a sign taped to the net that said…” Colleen looked over her shoulder again, and then down at the ground. “It said, ‘I love you Kyle, rescue me with a kiss’, and they left me hanging in the net with the sign until Kyle showed up for school which wasn’t until everyone else had already walked by and saw me hanging there.”

  Colleen kicked the white deck with her sneaker. She didn’t look at me. I was speechless. I couldn’t imagine being strung up in a net, let alone be forced to wear a sign that said, ‘Aaron I love you’. It would be completely… “Awful. That’s awful. I can’t believe they’d do that to you. What did Kyle say?”

  Colleen shook her head. “He turned around and walked the other way.”

  “Oh.” I bit my lip. “So you and him?”

  “I told him it was just a joke and we went on like nothing happened. We’re friends. We’ve always been friends and we’ll always be friends. Anything else just isn’t going to… It’s just not meant to be, that’s all.”

  “So, how did you get down? Did the pirates get in trouble?”

  Colleen glanced at me, her eyes narrowed. “They cut me down once they’d had their fun. Before Mom showed up to teach. You can’t trust them, Nessa. Promise me you won’t trust them—otherwise they might do the same thing to you. I only wish I would’ve told my dad before he ran off with a pirate and disappeared.”

  I nodded, an uneasy feeling taking over my stomach. I’d never liked bullies, and now I was going to be forced to eat dinner with some. “Of course I won’t trust them. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

  A relieved smile crossed Colleen’s face. “Good.” She turned and headed inside the house.

  I followed her, walking straight into the kitchen; it was painted butter yellow and had wooden cupboards with glass doors. I heard laughter coming from inside the house to the left, where I saw a doorway leading into the hall.

  “I think they're here,” I heard a male voice say, followed by the sound of footsteps heading toward the kitchen.

  “I hope they brought food,” said someone else with a faint accent.

  My eyes were fixed on the doorway when they entered, the chocolate cake still in my hands.

  “Mrs. O'Shea, it’s so nice to see you again.”

  I liked to think I wasn't the swooning type, but when the first pirate I'd ever met walked into the room, my whole body vibrated. He was tall, with tanned olive skin and dark, wavy hair that fell over his eyes. He had broad shoulders and a nose that was slightly too long. He wore a simple black button up shirt and a pair of light coloured blue jeans. Something about him made my body hum.

  He smiled when he greeted my grandma, wrapping her in a hug. I stared, gaping in disbelief at the warmth Grandma was allowing the young man to show her—especially after everything I’d just learned from Colleen. I looked at Colleen, puzzled, but she didn’t catch my gaze; she was too busy glaring at the pirate.

  “Welcome back, Caesar. I see you still haven't learnt that flattery will get you nowhere with me.” Grandma's face took on the serious look I was used to.

  Caesar—the gorgeous pirate I couldn't tear my gaze from—smiled and shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”

  Caesar turned his gaze toward me, catching me staring blatantly at him. I couldn't look away. I couldn't remember ever being so drawn to a person. I was drawn to his sharp cheek bones, to the tiny scar above his right eyebrow, to the slight rawness of his lips and rough spots on his chin that suggested he would one day have facial hair, and all the other little imperfections that were so.... so.... alluring. I tried to tear my gaze away, reminding myself of my promise to Colleen, but it was no use.

  “Another sea-witch?” he asked, a devilish look entering his steel grey eyes. Smiling at me, he winked.

  I didn’t know what to do. Half of me wanted to smile back, toss my hair, maybe even giggle. The other half wanted to tell the pirate off for hurting Colleen, even if it had been a year ago. Instead of speaking, I turned around and put the cake on the counter, breaking eye contact and giving myself a few seconds to catch my breath.

  “This is my granddaughter, Nessa. She'll be in your class this year.”

  I felt Caesar move closer to me. “It's a pleasure to meet you.” His voice rushed past my ear, brushing over my neck and lighting my body on fire. I mentally smacked myself: I'd just come to the realization that I’d never be with Aaron; obviously this was rebound attraction. Why else would I even consider liking a guy that had strung-up my friend in a net and embarrassed her in front of her entire class? Colleen was the only friend I had around here. I didn’t want to loose that friend because of some stupid, hormonal, attraction. No matter how attracted I was to Caesar, he wasn't worth it.

  Keeping my hands tucked safely behind my back, I turned around. Caesar was standing inches from me; the top of my head came up to his chin. His black-flecked grey eyes—the colour of an old silver candlestick that needed to be polished—glittered, as if they themselves were flirting. I looked down, unsettled by the hum running through my body and the feeling that each and every nerve was trying to move me closer to him. Instead, I looked straight ahead, which gave me a great view of his chest. Even under the cover of his black shirt, his chest appeared to be made of nothing but muscle. I cleared my throat, doing the only thing I could think of to gain the upper hand: I changed the topic.

  “It’s so great to meet you,” I gushed wildly, like a giddy city girl. “Do you know I've never met a mermaid before? You're my first one!”

  Caesar's eyes immediately stopped flirting and he moved back. One of the other pirates snickered. For the first time, I noticed two other young men: one was tall, blonde, and dressed in jeans and a grey sweater, and the other was short, the beefy-kind of muscular, and wearing a black bandana. Colleen's little brother Jack stood behind the new arrivals, staring at them with adoration.

  “I'm not a mermaid.” Caesar retreated to his friends.

  I let my face fall in disappointment, forcing myself to keep the laughter in so I could appear completely serious. “Oh no. Really? I was so sure. Maybe it’s your pretty hair that had me so confused.”

  “Caesar, Markus, and Juan are pirates.” Grandma took the lasagne she’d made over to the oven and slipped it inside. “Why don't you all go get to know each other while I finish preparing dinner? I'm sure you'll all find each other interesting.”

  I sighed, knowing there was no way Grandma would let me hang out in the kitchen with her—not that I wanted to. Even pirates had to be more fun than Grandma.

  “Yes, Nessa, why don't we get to know each other better?” The look Caesar gave me was halfway to flirtatious; he hadn’t made his mind up about me yet.

  I stuck close to Colleen as we made our way out of the kitchen and down the hall to the living room. “Shouldn't you be off ogling women and drinking rum from a paper bag?” I said the moment we were out of Grandma's hearing range.

  “How can I tell you’re a newbie? You think pirates are nothing more than thieves and scoundrels. You’re so naive that you should be wearing a pointy b
lack hat, my little witch. Pirates, our kind of pirates, are real treasure hunters. We can hear the sea just like you can—better even—and it's only us that She tells where the treasure is.” Caesar sat down comfortably on a brown leather couch.

  I flushed. “Well, it's too bad that the treasure isn't on the other side of the world.” It was a weak come back, but the only one I could think of. Markus sat down across from Caesar in a matching recliner, and Juan—the shorter, darker pirate—stood by the tall window. His hands were clasped behind his back, making his biceps bulge. His face was set in a scowl.

  “Are you happy to be here, Juan?” I asked, deciding that ignoring Caesar was the best way to keep from throwing myself at him.

  “This place is horrible.” Juan spoke with a slight accent. His eyes narrowed and he sighed. “Cuba is much more beautiful.”

  Markus, the blonde guy who was a little less muscular than the other two pirates, and taller than both, leaned forward. “You'll get used to it here.” Like Juan, Markus had a slight accent, though his was Eastern European and not Cuban. “It's still the ocean—just a little bit colder. It's much like the coast of my native Russia, though not better. There's nothing better than Russia.”

  “Cuba is better than Russia.” Juan moodily swung around and sat in the only open chair left in the room, next to the burning fireplace.

  “So Nessa—is that your real name?” Caesar leaned back into the couch, lengthening his body, causing his black shirt to lift up just enough that I caught a glimpse of his abs. They were tight, hard, and tanned. He caught me looking and smiled.

  I smiled back. “Why wouldn't it be real? Do girls often give you fake names?”

  “Hardly. It sounds a lot like the Loch Ness Monster. I thought for a moment you might be related, what with the similar appearance and all.”

  “Like I haven't heard that before—Julius. And if you must know, it's short for Vanessa—but since that's too many syllables for you to pronounce, you can stick with Nessa.”

  Caesar stood and slowly walked toward me. I held his gaze and didn't move as he approached. “You know, I'm beginning to like you. This year might be more fun if you and I were to become...friends.” His eyes twinkled again and my pulse fluttered.

  I turned away, beginning to make my way out of the room while I still had the presence of mind to do so. There was no way I was going to be friends with a lying—charming—bully. “I doubt that. I already have all the friends I need.” I headed for the exit, snatching Colleen by the elbow and dragging her toward the front door.

  She looked at me, surprised, but followed me out of the room anyway.

  “Let's go back to my house,” I whispered as we walked out of hers. “I feel like a pirate-free evening. If we hurry, we can be in Tofino before Grandma even knows we’re gone.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN