Witch

by Fiona Horne

  Against the dark sky the fire was transformed from prickly, plucky red flames to soft, snowy plumes of sweetly scented smoke. I inhaled deeply. And coughed.

  Oops, not magical enough. I focused and consciously tapped into a strong, passionate energy that I realised was churning inside me. It was a little bit like how I’d felt when I’d done the love spell on Matt, but this felt better, less chaotic – just strong and clean. I channelled the energy into our cool spell and, standing, thrust my hands towards the fire, capturing the sensuous smoke, shaping and weaving it around my coven members as I slowly paced the circle, calling out the charm that I had written from my heart.

  ‘In the dark we reveal our glory

  Hidden in the shadows we gather strength

  Rise up

  Rise glorious

  Strong and magnificent

  Always and forever

  We know who we are

  No longer hidden

  We reveal our true selves’

  There was a loud collective intake of breath and the buzzing sound went from the humming of a gigantic swarm of bees to the euphoric chorus of a choir of angels. Our cool spell had been cast.

  Ten

  I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror when I woke up the next morning. I looked exactly the same. Obviously the cool spell hadn’t worked.

  It had felt like it had the previous night. After we’d finished the spell we’d been so excited that we’d sat and talked for over an hour about how amazing the energy had felt. And for the first time since I’d met him, I’d felt relaxed and comfortable around Bryce. I actually spoke to him without covering my mouth with my hand for a full five minutes. And as we talked, with my guard down, I realised we had more in common than what we didn’t.

  When I’d got home I hadn’t been able to wait to fall asleep and wake up reborn. So to call this morning anticlimactic was an understatement.

  I attempted to do something with my hair, pushing it this way and that, and then I noticed that I was smiling, not frowning like I usually did as I got ready for school. With my eyes squinted, I analysed the expression on my face. It was definitely a happy look – a grin, even. It looked like it was painted on my face.

  My parents were standing in the kitchen, hugging and kissing. They sometimes did this, and it always grossed me out. I went to roll my eyes and frown like I normally did, but I couldn’t. I just kept smiling. My parents were smiling, too.

  ‘Have a good day, Vania,’ my father said, his tone surprisingly warm.

  ‘Love you, honey,’ my mother called out.

  A feeling of comfort and happiness washed over me. Everything just felt so right. The smile didn’t feel painted on anymore.

  I headed out the door.

  I got on the bus and there was Matt up the back as usual, not looking at me. Oh well, that reversal spell had definitely worked even if the cool one hadn’t. I took my seat towards the front of the bus and twirled my finger around a loose thread on my jumper, idly pulling and watching it unravel. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and jumped.

  ‘Hey, Vania!’

  I turned around and there were the blazing blue eyes of Matt Rock inches from my own!

  I couldn’t speak, but I caught sight of my reflection in the window and I was still smiling – my face not betraying the utter shock I was feeling inside.

  ‘Want to come and sit up the back with me? The view’s much better.’

  He laughed and pulled on my arm as he stood. I managed to grab my bag and follow him up the aisle. Kids gaped at me open-mouthed as I passed. Some of them smiled at me – I guess because I was still smiling, too.

  I slid into the seat next to Matt, my heart hammering in my chest. My days of crushing on him were over; now I was more curious. What was going on? Had the cool spell started to work?

  Matt was talking to me about his skateboarding and his surfing. A couple of weeks ago I would have hung on every word, but today it was just a ‘blah blah’ noise as I tried to work out what was happening. I needed a mirror. I spotted the bus driver’s rear-view mirror, and by leaning forward a little I brought my reflection into view. I could hardly believe what I saw. Even from a distance I could tell my hair was thicker, shinier and more blonde than mousey. I touched my hand to my hair tentatively. It felt soft. After a slow start, this spell was now coming on fast!

  I settled into the seat and Matt continued to drone on. All I could think about was seeing Bryce when I got to school.

  As soon as the bus stopped outside the school I leapt off, leaving Matt behind in mid-sentence.

  The twins were standing at the bottom of the school steps, and they looked amazing! Amelia’s hair was dead straight and nearly reached her waist, and Alyssa’s was a tumble of perfectly arranged ringlets, like something you’d see on a medieval princess. It was glossy and auburn red, and there wasn’t a stray frizzy hair in sight on either of them.

  And then Bryce walked up to them. Instead of his usual preppy clothes he was wearing a cool Skrillex T-shirt and black jeans. His hair, normally perfectly groomed, was tousled. He looked like a rock star – an incredibly hot rock star. And as I approached he smiled at me with obvious appreciation and my heart leapt.

  I tossed my new thick blonde hair over my shoulder. ‘How do I look?’ I asked.

  ‘Exactly the same . . .’

  I stopped twirling and looked at him incredulously. ‘The same?’

  ‘Yeah . . . like the Vania I’ve always known.’

  ‘How can I look the same? The spell is working, Bryce!’

  He looked self-conscious. ‘Well, you look fantastic – but you always look fantastic to me.’

  What? I felt anger boiling inside me, because now I knew he was lying – and making a fool out of me . . . again.

  ‘You know, if you weren’t in my coven I would never speak to you again!’ I hissed.

  I pushed past the twins and stormed up the stairs into school, bumping straight into Dean.

  ‘Whoa!’ he exclaimed. ‘Why are you so eager to get to class?’

  ‘I’m not!’ I spluttered. ‘I’m just furious!’

  Dean put his arm around my shoulder. ‘Well, at least your hair looks awesome,’ he said.

  I pushed his arm off me and looked at him properly. I realised all his acne was gone. For a moment I was distracted from my fury. ‘And your skin looks really good!’ I said.

  ‘Cool, thanks,’ he said. ‘I think we have another successful spell on our hands.’

  ‘Well, Bryce didn’t seem to notice that it’s worked for all of us – he said I look exactly the same.’ I spat the words out with frustration.

  ‘Have you considered that might be a compliment, Vania?’

  I looked at Dean blankly.

  ‘Have you considered that maybe he genuinely thinks you always look good?’ he said.

  My voice rose again. ‘You know he’s lying – I do not always look good.’

  ‘If someone really likes you, they don’t care what your hair is doing,’ Dean said and gave a small snort of laughter.

  He was laughing at me! My anger boiled over. ‘Don’t be so patronising! Bryce has never liked me like that – we’re just friends for magic – his words – I don’t know why we’re even talking about this!’ I said, turning to storm away, but Dean grabbed me and stopped me in my tracks.

  ‘I’m not letting you get away with that,’ he said angrily. ‘You’re the one who keeps going on that Bryce doesn’t like you that way. The twins and I have always thought he cares for you as more than just a friend. You’re letting your insecurities cloud everything. We’re all your friends – we just want to help you, and yet when we try to talk to you, you fly off the handle.’

  Dean’s words cut through me; tears stung the corners of my eyes. He was right, why was I getting so worked up? Being a loner I’d never had such good friends before. And in that moment I realised I hadn’t been treating them very well. But Bryce and me? I honestly couldn’t fathom how Dean and the tw
ins could have come to that conclusion. But alienating Dean wasn’t going to help. I tried to calm down and take in what he was saying.

  ‘Dean, I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I’m really sorry I was rude to you,’ I said. The second bell sounded, indicating classes were about to start. ‘And thanks for the compliment on my hair.’

  Dean nodded, and we walked up the hall together towards our homeroom. It occurred to me that Dean, having an alcoholic father, was probably used to emotions exploding irrationally and then having to be left behind. He was good at getting over things quickly. I, on the other hand, needed to learn to control my anger. Even with the cool spell working, not everything was perfect – there was still this blackness in me, this weird energy that could just boil up and make me feel . . . a bit crazy.

  Later that day all of us were sitting in the school cafeteria . . . surrounded by admirers. Dean was cracking jokes and Donna Hilles, one of Cassidy’s friends, was laughing hysterically and batting her eyelashes at him. In addition to his acne disappearing, he also looked twenty pounds lighter than he had when we’d gone into class that morning.

  I noticed three junior girls sitting at the next table gazing at Bryce adoringly and felt really jealous. But then I remembered that I needed to get a handle on my hot head.

  We’d cast this spell together – we were in it together. For a moment I let myself consider the idea that maybe Bryce really did like me and that I didn’t need to feel threatened by three non-magical juniors.

  The twins had bigger problems. They were trying to fend off three older guys who were asking for their phone numbers.

  And Cassidy was talking to me! ‘Vania, I really like your lip gloss – what is it?’ she said as she sat down beside me.

  I rubbed at my lips self-consciously. ‘I don’t have anything on . . .’ I began to say, but there was a pinky pearlescent sheen on the back of my hand. ‘Actually, I’ve forgotten what it’s called. I think it’s something by Victoria’s Secret.’ I shrugged helplessly. I knew I certainly hadn’t put anything on my mouth – I always went out of my way to avoid drawing attention to my lips.

  ‘And your hair looks really good, too,’ Cassidy said. ‘Hey, do you want to hang out after school?’ She nodded enthusiastically, as if I couldn’t possibly say no.

  ‘Um, thanks, but I can’t today, Cassidy.’ She looked disappointed and I pinched my leg under the table to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. This was surreal.

  I noticed the junior girls encroaching on Bryce’s personal space and decided to rescue him. ‘See you later, Cassidy,’ I said. I walked over to Bryce, pulling up a chair next to him. It made a loud screeching noise on the floor, and for a moment everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me. I just shrugged and smiled.

  ‘Bryce, I’m sorry for getting so worked up over nothing before,’ I said.

  ‘No problem – and thanks for rescuing me,’ Bryce replied in a friendly tone.

  Reassured, I winked and laughed. ‘I thought you might need a saviour.’

  ‘I think the twins need saving more than me right now.’ He nodded over at them. The three boys now had the girls pinned against the cafeteria wall. Amelia and Alyssa were gripping their books to their chests. All of a sudden they dropped them, though, and grabbed each other’s hand. Their eyes closed, and almost imperceptibly their hair started to float away from their shoulders. I felt the familiar magical prickle down my spine, and from the corner of my eye I saw Dean turn away from Donna and take a step towards the girls.

  Everything shifted into slow motion.The twins began to float upwards, until they were a metre off the ground. As this happened, the guys who had been bothering them fell backwards to the floor – but slowly, like feathers settling, as if they had passed out and some invisible hand had caught them, and lowered them gently down.

  Bryce and I made our way over. The air felt thick but tingly, like we were swimming through crystal soup. Everything was sparkling.

  Dean appeared next to us and the three of us joined hands. Amelia and Alyssa floated over, their eyes were still shut. Alyssa took Bryce’s other hand and Amelia taking Dean’s. We were joined in a circle and I felt my feet lift from the floor, too – we were all floating at least a metre above the ground. Every breath I took seemed to inflate me, like helium. I looked around the cafeteria, and all I could see were shadowy figures suspended as if frozen in time. I turned back to look at the twins. I had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on.

  Suddenly the twins’ eyes shot open.

  Our feet crashed to the ground, but we remained standing, holding hands, as the room came into focus again. To my dismay, there was complete and utter pandemonium surrounding us.

  The three boys on the floor were howling like dogs. Donna Hilles was screaming and running around pushing chairs over with Cassidy helping her, and the three junior girls were giggling maniacally, their eyes rolling back in their heads like they were possessed. Someone had started a food fight; kids were scooping their hands into the food buffet and throwing it at each other. And into the centre of all of this walked . . . Mr Barrow.

  ‘STOP!’ His voice thundered over the noise.

  The room went silent. Suddenly everything was normal again, as if nothing had ever happened – except that there was food dripping off some of the knocked-over chairs, splashed on the walls and covering the other students. And we, the coven, were still standing in a circle holding hands in the centre of the cafeteria.

  Mr Barrow’s finger pointed at us, sharp like a stake he would skewer us on if he could. ‘You lot – my office!’

  We marched after him into the hall.

  ‘What the hell was that floating thing?’ I whispered to Amelia.

  ‘A psychic shield. We read about them and learnt how to make one, in theory. I think we overdid it on this one, though,’ she said, leaning towards me her voice hushed so that Mr Barrow wouldn’t hear her.

  ‘It’s only meant to be like a light forcefield that blocks people from approaching you, but I think we sucked too much energy into it and made everything in its immediate vicinity go out of balance,’ Alyssa whispered in my other ear.

  ‘That’s one way of putting it.’ Dean snickered. ‘I think you caused complete chaos – quantum style.’

  We reached Mr Barrow’s office. I noticed Bryce was still holding my hand and a warm feeling went through me, but when I looked up and saw the horrible look on Mr Barrow’s face an icy chill took its place. He was glaring at me with such intensity that I shrank behind Bryce to get away from it.

  ‘Get in here,’ he snarled.

  While our cool spell had worked to enchant our classmates, it seemed to have exacerbated Mr Barrow’s persecution of me – so much so that his hatred had now engulfed my coven, too.

  We shuffled into the office and lined up against the back wall.

  Mr Barrow took a seat behind his desk and said nothing. The silence made me even more uncomfortable than when he’d yelled at us.

  ‘Mr Barrow, why have you called us in here?’ Bryce said eventually.

  ‘As an ex-class president, you should have an idea.’ Mr Barrow emphasised the ‘ex’, and a fleck of spit left his mouth as he spat the word out.

  ‘Actually, sir, I don’t.’

  ‘Causing a commotion, creating an uproar among the younger students in the common area, when you all should be setting an example. You all deserve detention as far as I’m concerned,’ Mr Barrow said. He seemed exultant, spreading the words out over us all like a net. Still, I couldn’t help but feel most of his anger was reserved for me.

  ‘Sir, we didn’t do anything,’ Amelia said.

  I had to admire her boldness. We’d been floating a metre off the ground, after all. I glanced at her, but her face was a mask of innocence. Alyssa also looked completely guilt-free. I wondered if maybe we had been the only people to experience us floating. Like we’d been in some parallel dimension, unseen by normal people.

  �
�Starting today, you will be in my laboratory after school for a minimum of two hours a day for a total of seven days,’ Mr Barrow said, glaring at us. ‘One more word from any of you and I will make it a month.’

  We all kept our mouths closed.

  As we left his office I fingered the desert sage I kept in my pocket all the time now. It wasn’t doing a very good job of protecting me from misfortune – maybe I needed to stuff both my pockets with it.

  When we were out of Mr Barrow’s earshot I spoke up. ‘He has no evidence that we did anything wrong. Why did he give us detention?’

  ‘Maybe the spell is backfiring?’ Bryce said. ‘So far being cool has been a pain in the butt just like I said it would be.’

  ‘You’re biased,’ I said, rolling my eyes. ‘You never really wanted to do this spell in the first place. But I like being cool. I like having people like Matt and Cassidy sucking up to me.’

  ‘Geez, Vania, I never realised you were so shallow,’ Bryce said. ‘I think I liked you better the way you were before.’

  His words shot through me like a bullet. I ran out of the building.

  I went and sat under a tree outside, my head buried in my hands. What a mess everything was. Being cool had only made things worse with Mr Barrow and got all of us detention, Bryce had made it clear he didn’t like the cool me and now I was back where I started – feeling like a freak.

  I hadn’t realised how much I’d secretly longed to be popular. The purpose of the spell had been for everyone to get on – to be equal – not for us to become the cool group. Had I somehow tainted the intention of the spell? Was that why today had gone pear-shaped?

  I went over the words I’d written for the incantation: We know who we are / No longer hidden / we reveal our true selves. These were positive, good ideas about being the best we could be. I didn’t limit it to appearances . . . The problem must be in how I was viewing things. Well, I told myself, I’ll just have to stop focusing on that part of the result and work harder to live up to our intention.

  Turned out Bryce had been right – being cool was proving not to be as great as I’d thought it would be.