by Isobel Bird
“Look who’s here,” Sherrie said, seeing Kate and Cooper. Annie tried to pantomime surprise behind Sherrie’s back, but she could tell that Cooper and Kate were too shocked to notice.
“Hi, Kate,” Jessica said.
“Hey,” Kate said. “How are you guys?”
“Pretty good,” Tara answered. “We haven’t seen you much since basketball season ended.”
“I’ve been really busy with school stuff,” Kate said. “You know how it is.”
“We certainly do,” Sherrie remarked. “By the way, how’s your friend Sasha? We haven’t seen much of her either.”
“She’s fine,” Cooper said coldly.
“She couldn’t come tonight,” Annie explained. “She had something else to do.”
“Pity we never got to give her that makeover,” Sherrie said. “But maybe we can do one for you, Annie. What do you say? Now that you’re moving up in the world, you could use a new wardrobe.”
“I think I’m happy with the one I have,” said Annie. “But thanks for the offer.”
“Consider it a standing one,” Sherrie said. “Now, where’s the little girls’ room? I need to freshen up.”
“It’s down there,” Annie said, pointing down the hall and watching Sherrie saunter down it with Jessica and Tara in tow like obedient ducklings.
“Why’d you let them in?” Kate whispered.
“What was I supposed to do?” Annie said. “Throw them out?”
“Yes!” Kate responded. “Well, Sherrie anyway. The other two are okay when they aren’t under her evil mind control.”
“Don’t worry,” Annie said. “I’ll keep them out of your way. Why don’t you go fill bowls with chips or something?”
“Gladly,” Kate said. “Just don’t let me near Sherrie with anything sharp.”
“Doesn’t Kate like those girls?” Meg asked her sister.
“Santa Claus doesn’t even like those girls,” Cooper said.
“Would you stop,” Annie said in exasperation. “One night. That’s all I’m asking for. One night and it will all be over. You can do that, can’t you?”
“It’ll be hard,” Cooper said. “After all, it is my job to terrorize the beautiful people. But I’ll try.”
“Thank you,” Annie said. “I’m going to go make sure everything is okay in the kitchen. Try to keep the Graces away from Kate.”
She left Cooper and Meg standing in the dining room and went to check on the proceedings in the kitchen. Remarkably, everything seemed to be going just fine. She had set out paper plates and cups for everyone, and within twenty minutes everybody was assembled in the living room, talking, laughing, and eating.
“It was just like Annie said,” one of the girls was telling the group when Annie came in with her own plate. “She told me that I had to make a choice, and she was right.”
“Looks like you’re batting a thousand with this group,” Cooper said under her breath.
“Does everyone have enough to drink?” Annie asked loudly, ignoring her.
“We were just talking about your predictions,” Loren said, motioning for Annie to have a seat next to her on the floor. “It’s amazing how many of them have come true already.”
“Like what?” Annie asked.
“Well, I confronted Dean about his cheating,” Jenna said unhappily. “He still says he didn’t do it, but I know he did, thanks to you.”
“And then there’s Cheryl and her broken wrist,” Loren added.
“And don’t forget my trip to Paris,” Sherrie said smugly. “I was the first one to have a prediction come true, you know.”
“You’ve been right on target with everything so far,” another girl said. “How do you do it?”
“I just look at the cards,” Annie said, suddenly feeling very self-conscious. “It’s all in there.”
“But if it were that easy, anyone could do it,” Loren said. “What is it about you that makes you able to read them so well?”
The girls were all looking at Annie, waiting for her to answer. She didn’t know what to say. They wouldn’t believe her if she said that she knew all about the cards just from reading about them and studying them. They wanted to hear something different, something unusual.
“Annie’s magic,” said a small voice, breaking the silence.
Annie looked up and saw Meg smiling at her happily from her position beside Cooper on the floor.
“Magic,” Meg said again. “Annie does magic. Just like in the fairy tales.”
Annie looked at Cooper and Kate in alarm, and saw that they too were looking concerned. They had never said anything to Meg about witchcraft, but it was possible that she had seen or heard things when they weren’t paying attention. But how much did her little sister really know about what they did in Annie’s bedroom?
“What do you mean, Annie’s magic?” one of the girls asked Meg.
“You know,” Meg said. “Like a witch.”
The feeling of apprehension in Annie’s stomach turned to fear as she saw all the girls look at one another, then at her.
“Meg reads a lot of fairy tales,” Annie said, trying to think of something fast. “Sometimes we act them out. You know, she’ll be Little Red Riding Hood and I’ll be the wolf, or she’ll be Snow White and I’m the evil queen.”
“We do not pretend,” Meg said firmly, and Annie could tell she was going to be stubborn about the topic. Meg was a very smart girl, and she could tell when someone was lying. Normally Annie loved that about her, but right now she wished more than anything that her sister was more like other little kids.
“That’s so cute,” Loren said. “What part do you like to play best, Meg?”
Meg frowned. “It’s not pretend,” she said. “Annie can make magic. So can Kate and Cooper.”
“I used to pretend that I was magic when I was your age, too,” Loren said, apparently not hearing or not caring about what Meg had just said. “I used to pretend I was a fairy princess.”
But someone else had heard what Meg had said, and she spoke up.
“Cooper and Kate can make magic, too?” Sherrie said sweetly. “What can they do, Meg?”
“We can turn mean old princesses into trolls, can’t we, Meg?” Cooper said, glaring at Sherrie.
Meg laughed. “Yes,” she said. “Trolls. With long noses.”
“I’m sure you can,” Sherrie responded. “Annie, why don’t you do some readings for us now?”
The other girls seconded the idea in a chorus of voices. Annie didn’t know what to do. The idea of doing readings had seemed fun when she was in the choir room and everyone was listening to what she had to say. But in her own living room, with Kate and Cooper watching, she felt self-conscious. It was almost like she was on display.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Hasn’t everyone had a reading already?”
“I haven’t,” Jessica said.
“Me neither,” Tara added.
Several other girls chimed in, saying that they hadn’t yet had readings done. They all wanted Annie to see what the cards held for them.
“And what about Cooper and Kate?” Sherrie asked slyly. “Have you read their cards yet? Or are they magic, too, and just do it themselves?”
Annie looked at her friends, who suddenly seemed very uncomfortable. Kate was standing in the doorway, her plate in her hands. Cooper busied herself with her pizza. Annie knew that Sherrie was trying to get information out of them, and she didn’t want to give her anything to go on.
“I guess I could do a few readings,” she said, hoping to distract Sherrie.
She went to her room and got her Tarot deck as the girls crowded around the coffee table in the living room, arranging cushions and chairs in a circle. When she came back, they had made a space for her to sit in, and Tara was sitting on the opposite side of the table.
“This is so cool,” she said as Annie prepared to do the reading. “I’ve never done anything like this. Do I have to do anything special?”
“
Just concentrate,” Annie told her. “Think about a question you’d like to have answered. You can tell me what it is, but you don’t have to.”
Tara looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled. “I have one,” she said. “But I’m not going to tell you. I want to see what you see in the cards first.”
Annie, who had been shuffling the cards while Tara thought of a question, laid them on the table and turned over the first five. The girls all looked at them as she spread them out.
“What’s that one mean?” Tara asked, pointing at a picture of a stern-looking woman holding a sword.
“She’s the Queen of Swords,” Annie explained. “She usually represents a dark-haired woman with a willful personality, someone who tries to control the people around her and who can be sort of mean sometimes.”
Tara shot a look at Sherrie but didn’t say anything. Instead, she pointed to another card. “And that one?”
“The Three of Swords,” said Annie. “See how the swords are piercing the heart? That suggests that some kind of relationship has been severed, possibly because of the person represented by the Queen.”
This time Annie noticed that Tara looked over at Kate. It’s true, she thought to herself. Kate and Tara were good friends until Sherrie started causing trouble. Her reading was right on target. But what effect was it going to have on the people hearing it? Annie felt as if she was telling secrets that were better left alone.
“And what do the rest of them say?” Tara asked, bringing her back to the moment.
Annie looked at the three remaining cards. She didn’t want to say what she saw, but everyone was waiting.
“You have a choice to make,” Annie said. “You can either stand up to the Queen or you can continue to be influenced by her. But if you don’t stand up to her, you’re never going to repair the relationship that’s been broken.”
Tara was silent as she looked at the cards. Annie could tell that she was thinking about everything she’d been told. But what would she do with that information? Would she really stand up to Sherrie, or would she continue to let her run her life?
“That’s a lame reading,” Sherrie said.
“Actually,” Tara said softly, “it’s exactly what I was thinking about.”
Sherrie snorted. “Whatever,” she said. “It’s time for someone else to go. How about Kate?”
“That’s okay,” Kate said. “I don’t really want to.”
“Oh, come on,” Sherrie coaxed. “It will be fun.”
Annie could tell that Kate didn’t want to do it. But Kate also didn’t want to give Sherrie another reason to make fun of her. Reluctantly, she took Tara’s place at the table.
“I don’t really have a question,” she told Annie. “Just see what comes up.”
Annie shuffled the cards, smiling at her friend as she did. Kate smiled back nervously. They both knew that this was a challenge from Sherrie. She wanted to see them screw up in front of all the other girls, especially after what had happened with Tara.
“Here we go,” Annie said, finishing the shuffling and laying out the cards one at a time.
“Well?” Sherrie demanded. “What lies ahead for Kate? Fame and fortune?”
Annie hesitated. She glanced at Kate. “Not exactly,” she said.
“What is it?” Kate asked.
Annie spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully. “It seems to be about your love life.”
She saw Kate grow pale. One of the big reasons Kate had fallen out with Sherrie and the others was her breakup with Scott Coogan, the captain of the football team. No one could understand why Kate had done it, and it had cost her a lot in terms of her popularity. Annie knew that most of the girls in the room thought Kate was crazy for dumping Scott.
“Is there a handsome stranger in her future?” Sherrie joked.
“No,” Annie said. “It’s someone from her past.”
“I don’t think I want to hear any more,” Kate said quickly.
“But we do,” Sherrie said. “What do the cards say, Annie?”
“Someone from your past is going to come back into your life,” Annie said. “And it’s going to cause problems with someone who is in your life now.”
She saw the look of hurt and confusion cross Kate’s face. Then Kate stood up. “Thanks for the warning,” she said, walking out of the room.
Annie got up and followed her friend, knowing that everyone was wondering what was going on. Kate was standing at the front door, her backpack over her shoulder.
“Where are you going?” Annie asked.
“Home,” Kate said.
“Kate,” Annie said, “I’m sorry about what happened back there. I was just telling you what I saw.”
“No,” Kate said. “You weren’t telling me. You were telling them. Your audience.”
Annie didn’t know what to say. She’d never seen Kate angry at her before. All she could do was stand there, looking at the expression on Kate’s face and wishing she could take back everything she’d said. But she couldn’t.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
Kate opened the door. “So am I,” she said as she walked out.
CHAPTER 7
“You wouldn’t believe the weather,” Annie’s aunt said. “Cool and sunny and just gorgeous. Not like the gray skies we have all the time here. Oh, and we went to the best Chinese restaurant. You would have loved it.”
Aunt Sarah had been home for three hours, and she hadn’t stopped talking about San Francisco since she walked in the door. So far Annie had heard all about the cute houses, the fun shops, and the nice people. Now her aunt was going on about the cable car she’d ridden and the farmer’s market she’d been to. It was like she’d been hired by the city to do a sales pitch.
“You know, I did live there once,” Annie said, interrupting a description of Golden Gate Park.
Her aunt stopped talking. “I know,” she said. “I guess I just forget sometimes. That seems like such a long time ago.”
“Not to me it doesn’t,” Annie said.
Her aunt sighed. “I didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories,” she said. “It’s just that I had such a wonderful time, and I wished you could have been there with me.”
I will be soon enough, Annie thought. Her aunt still hadn’t said a word about moving them away from Beecher Falls. It was like she wanted to sell them on San Francisco before she announced that they were going to be living there.
“I don’t remember it being so great,” Annie said. “And I like the weather in Beecher Falls.”
“How did everything go here?” her aunt said, clearly changing the subject.
“Fine,” Annie answered shortly.
But everything hadn’t gone fine. After Kate stormed out, the party had definitely gone downhill. No one really mentioned her exit, but Annie knew they were all thinking about it. She’d tried to get people back into the spirit of things by doing a few more readings, but her heart just hadn’t been in it. Everyone had sort of drifted out, and she and Cooper had cleaned up.
Saturday had been even worse. Normally she would have hung out with Kate and Cooper. But even if Kate had been speaking to her, she had already made plans with her family for the whole weekend, and Cooper had rehearsal with her band, Schroedinger’s Cat. Annie had spent the day with Meg. She usually would have enjoyed that, but all she could think about was how hurt Kate had been by her reading. Part of her understood why Kate was upset, but another part didn’t. It wasn’t as if she had made up what she saw in the cards. Why had Kate reacted so strongly?
At least Cooper was coming over that afternoon. Annie had agreed to help her study for finals. But what she really wanted to do was talk to Cooper about Kate.
“I’m going upstairs,” she told her aunt. “Send Cooper up when she gets here, okay?”
Up in her room, she threw herself on her bed and picked up a book she’d been reading about different types of witches. She had been surprised to learn that there were many different types o
f witchcraft, and she was curious about what made each one unique. But as she read, a thought kept trying to intrude, poking at her like a cat worrying a mouse. It was something she’d been avoiding letting herself really think about. Now, though, she couldn’t avoid it any longer.
She put the book away. All of her aunt’s talk about San Francisco had started her thinking about living there. Reluctantly, she closed her eyes and tried to remember the city. She hadn’t thought about it for a long time. But now, because of her aunt, it had been on her mind almost constantly, and she had to start facing some of her old fears.
She was surprised at how hard it was to remember. She had to concentrate really hard, and even then the images came slowly. She pictured the house her family had lived in, with its pink and white paint and the long flight of stairs that led to the street. When she was little she’d pretended that the house was a castle. When she was old enough to help carry groceries up those steps, she’d wished there weren’t so many of them.
She thought about walking up and down the hilly streets with her parents, and about going to the taquerias for burritos and to the docks to watch the sea lions sun themselves on the rocks. Despite what she’d said to her aunt, she had loved living there. But she didn’t want to go there now. She didn’t want to see the places she used to go to with her parents when they weren’t there with her. She didn’t want to be reminded of them.
“Hey,” Cooper said, walking in. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Yeah,” said Annie. “You’ve brought an end to a really great afternoon of fretting. Thanks a lot.”
“Still thinking about Kate?” Cooper asked, putting her backpack down and sitting on the end of the bed.
“Do you think she’ll be mad at me forever?” asked Annie.
“No,” Cooper answered. “But probably for a little while.”
“I still don’t get it,” Annie said. “It wasn’t like I said anything horrible about her.”
They’d been over this numerous times since the party. Cooper sighed.
“She’s really sensitive about the whole thing with Scott and Tyler,” she said. “You know that.”
