by Tara West
“A strong witch,” Mother said. “And Aunt Bertrice is the most powerful witch we know.”
Suddenly it all made sense. The reason they were babbling and acting so nervous. They were trying to send us to Salem!
I stole glances at my friends, who were wide-eyed and gaping at my family. They looked as scared as I felt. “S-so you want us to go live with Aunt Bertrice?” I stammered.
Mother lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes.
I’d seen that look before. That was the look she used whenever she knew I was about to talk back.
She nodded. “We’ve already made arrangements.”
My pulse quickened. My heart felt like a hammer pounding against my chest. “But what about softball?”
Mother flashed what looked like a sympathetic smile. “It’s only for one year.”
Only for one year!
Had she no idea what missing one year of sports would do to my athletic career?
“If I miss a full year of sports, I’ll lose my edge.” My voice rose along with my ire. “It’s bad enough I can’t play basketball.”
“AJ,” Grandma said, “When are you going to realize that sports are not your true calling in life?”
My hammering heart deflated. Grandma was supposed to be on my side. She was the one adult I could always depend on when the rest of the adults were being unreasonable.
“Salem has a few private leagues,” Aunt Bertrice said. “I’m sure you could still play softball.”
Private leagues? Yeah, sure, our town had private leagues, too, mostly a bunch of out-of-shape middle-aged people who were just looking for something to pass the time. I couldn’t be taken seriously in a private league. I wanted to play real team sports.
“So I’m going, too, and my dad is okay with this?” Krysta asked in a barely audible voice as she clutched her cat to her chest.
For a moment, I’d forgotten my friends were beside me. Up until now, they’d been quiet while the adults were intent on ruining our lives.
Mother patted Krysta on the knee. “He knows it’s what your mom would have wanted.”
When Krysta’s eyes glossed over, I knew it was over for her. Of course she’d agree if she thought it was what her dead mother wanted. What did it matter to Krysta, anyway? She didn’t play sports. All she ever did was watch celebrity television and read fashion blogs. You could do that from any town.
Oh, so unfair of my mother for pulling the dead mom card on Krysta. I’m sure this was all part of their evil plan to destroy our adolescence.
Heat raced up my chest and fanned my face. I was so angry, I could practically feel the steam shooting out of my ears.
“My parents are never going to agree,” Sophie said in a clipped tone. “My mom freaks if I’m gone from home for more than an hour. And you can’t tell them about my gift. They’ll go nuts.”
Mom smiled and leaned toward Sophie. “I was thinking of telling them that AJ is going there to heal, and she could use your support.”
Sophie arched away from my mom, emphatically shaking her head. “I’m in all AP classes. They want me to go to an Ivy League college like my sister. I know they won’t let me leave.”
Thank goodness I had Sophie to talk some sense into my family. Maybe she could make them understand that leaving Greenwood was a bad idea.
“And what about you, Sophie?” Aunt Bertrice fixed Sophie with a knowing gaze. A slight smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “What do you want?”
Please, Sophie, please tell them you want to stay here.
I looked over at my friend and gasped in shock. Never had I seen her face so flushed. And that look in her eyes. Sweet, innocent Sophie looked like she was about to rip my aunt’s head off.
With fists clenched by her sides, Sophie slowly rose to her feet. “I want everything to go back to the way it used to be. Back when my gift only worked once in a while.” She began to shake as tears streamed down her face. “Back before people were telling me I was a witch, and I needed a stupid cat to control my powers!”
I was too stunned to speak. Krysta was as still as a statue beside me.
Mother’s mouth fell open. “Sophie—”
“I don’t even like cats!” Sophie screeched and stomped her foot before storming out of the room.
In the quiet that followed, her little white kitten popped its head over the top of the box and cried, a sad, mournful sound.
Chapter Five
Sophie
“Why won’t you let me go?” I slumped in a stool at the kitchen counter while my mom prepared dinner. I’d been crying into my soda, not even caring as streams of tears dripped down my chin and into my fizzy drink.
My mom stopped mutilating a stalk of celery long enough to speak through a clenched jaw. “I’ve just told you why.”
“But they’re my best friends,” I sobbed. Sure, I had acted like a brat at AJ’s house earlier and told them I wanted everything to go back to normal, but since that wasn’t about to happen, I couldn’t very well stay in Greenwood when my two BFFs lived hours away. Who would I relate to at this huge new school? Fitting in with ‘normal’ kids was hard enough for the three of us. How was I supposed to do it by myself?
“You’ll have to make new friends,” Mom grumbled before pointing a limp carrot at me. “You are not taking chances with your education just so you can be homeschooled in Salem.” She rolled her eyes before slapping the carrot on the cutting board. “I really don’t understand what’s gotten into AJ’s mother. I’ve always thought Mrs. Dawson was smarter than this.”
“She is smart. She knows what she’s doing.” But even as I said the words, I knew they’d lacked the force I needed to get through to her. How could I possibly explain everything to my mom without her completely flipping out?
“First, she gives you a cat without my permission. Now, she expects to whisk you away to another state.” Mom slammed an onion on the counter and cracked it open with one jarring slice of her huge knife.
I swallowed hard, and for a moment, I visualized my future as that onion, and a sinking feeling settled in my gut. My whole future was going to get chopped to pieces, all because I had no way of making my mom understand me.
“I already explained. AJ’s aunt is going to take care of her while she recovers.”
“You told me her aunt was a retired teacher.” Mom stopped chopping long enough to give me an accusatory glare. “Was she a doctor, too?”
“No.” I vehemently shook my head as that weight in my gut began to twist itself into knots. This wasn’t working. I wasn’t going to sway my mom. My story sounded lame even to my own ears. “Not a doctor, but she knows a lot about healing.”
Mom rolled her eyes for possibly the hundredth time since we’d begun this argument. “Sounds like a crackerbox if you ask me. She lives in Salem, so I wouldn’t doubt it. Do you know how may weirdos live there?” A visible shudder stole across her features before she leveled me with a determined expression. “There’s no way you are going to Salem.”
I wiped my sleeve across my face, sniffling loudly as more tears slipped from my eyelids. “I can’t be without my friends. Why can’t you understand?”
“I’ve already told you the answer is ‘no’. End of discussion,” Mom growled as she violently cut into the head of cabbage. Then she raised the blade before pointing it toward the living room. “Now go find that cat of yours before she pisses all over my carpet.”
Why did I even bother? I knew she wouldn’t understand. Nobody in my family understood me, and now because of my mom, I’d have no friends who understood me, either.
For a brief moment, I remembered how I’d gotten Sleznick to let us out of that test. I could have made my mom let me go, but I had no idea how long the spell would last. What if she demanded I came home once I got to Salem? Besides, I didn’t think my friends or AJ’s family would have approved of me coercing my mom with my powers.
I slid off my stool onto legs that felt like deadweights as I envisioned
myself falling into a deep hole, a well of despair. I trudged out of the kitchen, listlessly calling my cat’s name, when all I wanted to do was curl up in my bed and cry myself to sleep.
***
Krysta
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
I looked over at AJ. She’d refolded her softball jersey at least ten times, debating whether or not she should pack it. I still couldn’t believe she’d finally agreed to go to Salem. I guess she felt bad for her distraught mom after Sophie’s tantrum. AJ’s family was trying to do the right thing by sending us to live with Aunt Bertrice.
I thought the whole thing was way cool. I mean, a powerful witch was going to teach me how to become a powerful witch, too. Maybe I’d get so good at speaking to the dead I could summon spirits, rather than waiting for them to wake me up at all hours of the night. Maybe I could even learn how to summon my mom’s ghost.
That’s the real reason I wanted to go live with Aunt Bertrice —to learn how to contact my mom. She was murdered by drug lords when I was a baby. She was working as a homicide detective, and I guess the wrong person found out she could summon the spirits of a drug cartel’s victims. I never got a chance to know her or find out who killed her, so I could help bring the killers to justice.
Every time I thought about how my mom was taken from me, my blood began to boil. I’d been practically raising myself since I could walk. Depression had driven my dad to drink, so I was usually left alone. Well, not really alone. I always had my ‘visitors’ to keep me company. Though my dad had been trying his best to stay sober since last spring, he sometimes went on binges.
I could have had a happy childhood and maybe even a functional family if my mom hadn’t been taken from me.
I jerked as little paws began scratching on my shoe. My kitten had woken from her nap and was ready to play. I scooped her into my arms and held her against my chest. She purred, and I became entranced by the soft vibrations. I’d named her Cemi, after the cemis, the term to encompass gods, spirits, and ancestors in the original religion of my mother’s homeland, Puerto Rico.
I’d only had Cemi for a few days but as I held her against my heart, I felt as if my kitty had the power to soothe my broken spirit. Anger over my mother’s killers seemed to melt away as I stroked her soft little ears.
Odd, but I didn’t know how else to describe it. This kitty of mine was attached to my soul. I loved her completely and unconditionally.
After I softly sighed against her little head, she squirmed out of my arms and onto AJ’s bed. She found AJ’s kitten, Sif, and they began to wrestle over a stray sock. AJ said Sif was the wife of the Norse god Thor, and the Norse thought Sif had control over destiny. A pretty good name for the cat of a girl with the gift of premonition, I thought.
AJ and I laughed as we watched the kittens in action. They were so adorable together. I wondered how Sophie was doing with her kitten. The two of them hadn’t exactly hit it off when they’d first met. When it came to choosing a name, Sophie put it off for over a day, and she finally named the cat after her dad’s great-aunt Alessia “because it’s pretty.” I looked up the name later and found out it was Italian, and it meant “defender.” Which of them would be defending whom was still up for debate, as Sophie didn’t seem to care.
My chest ached with regret. Poor Sophie. Poor Alessia. I hoped she’d be okay separated from her sisters.
“I wish Sophie was coming.” AJ voiced what I’d been thinking, which wasn’t really odd. Sophie had been on our minds a lot lately.
“Yeah, I know. I wish your mom could have talked Sophie’s mom into letting her go.”
“Wouldn’t have mattered.” AJ shrugged as she folded her jersey for the last time and shoved it into her overstuffed suitcase. “Sophie already made it clear she wouldn’t come. Have you heard from her today?”
I shook my head. “Nada.”
AJ’s pale blue eyes darkened. “She’s shutting us out.”
“What do we do?”
“Nothing.” AJ groaned as she forced the latches shut on her suitcase. “Aunt Bertrice said to give her space. She said this happens to a lot of teen witches.”
“Really?” I briefly wondered how many other teen witches Aunt Bertrice had known and if we’d get to meet others like us.
“Yeah, Sophie’s in denial, or rejection or something like that.” AJ leaned against her suitcase and then flipped her blonde ponytail over her shoulder. “I suppose it doesn’t help that she’s got no one in her family she can talk to.”
“She’s got us,” I squeaked but somehow I sensed that wasn’t enough for Sophie.
AJ shook her head. “Krysta, when you and I go home we don’t have to hide ourselves from our parents. Can you imagine what Sophie’s mom would do if she found out Sophie can read minds?”
An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. “And when we’re gone, Sophie will have no one at all.”
AJ turned and looked out the window. It was a relatively sunny day despite the gloom that had settled inside my heart. I studied AJ’s profile as a tic worked in her jaw.
“I know.”
My chest tightened as my limbs iced over with fear. “How do you think she’ll handle it?” I asked, though I was afraid I already knew the answer.
If it was at all possible, AJ’s expression hardened even more. “The way she’s been acting lately, I don’t think she will handle it.”
Chapter Six
Sophie
“Alessia!” I yelled, stomping down the stairs. That stupid cat. She kept disappearing. It wasn’t like she was made of camouflage; I mean seriously, she was pure white. She should have stuck out like a sore thumb. “Alessia!”
Mom was standing over the newspaper in the kitchen, a steaming mug of coffee in one hand. She was dressed for work in a tailored suit with her thick pile of chestnut hair swept back in a neat twist. She glanced up as I walked in, one trim eyebrow raised. “Problem?”
“Have you seen my cat?” I bent over and glanced under the table. Nothing. I’d already checked the most obvious hiding places, like my closet and under the couch. Other than a little ring of leftover fur on the blanket where she’d spent the night in my room, I couldn’t find a trace of her.
Mom turned back to her paper, obviously bored by my plight. “Not since last night, dear.”
“I’m going to be late for the bus.” I groaned, falling into a chair at the table. “I need to put her up so Buster doesn’t get to her.”
“Buster isn’t going to hurt your cat.”
“Are you kidding? He practically tried to eat her yesterday.” I huffed, blowing hair out of my eyes. I hadn’t even brushed my mop of brown hair yet.
“If I see her before I leave for work, I’ll put her in your room,” Mom told me with a brief smile. “Quit worrying. And fix your hair.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can you keep Buster outside until you find her?”
“He’s not going to be happy with me.” Mom closed her newspaper and folded it, eyeing me pointedly.
“Mom.” I sighed. “You can’t let him hurt my cat.”
She slapped the newspaper to the counter, her eyes going hard. “I remember when Buster was your best buddy. Now you hardly give him the time of day.”
I didn’t answer. Sure, I felt bad about neglecting my sweet yellow lab. How could I explain that even though I hadn’t wanted Alessia, she was mine?
Mom turned away to put her mug in the sink. “I think we need to give that cat back to AJ’s aunt.”
“What?” I shook my head, flabbergasted. “I can’t do that. She was a gift. I can’t just give her back.”
“She doesn’t seem to be warming up to you, and honestly, sweetie, you don’t know how to handle a cat.” The sound of running water filled the room as she rinsed out her cup.
I waited until the faucet was silenced before I said, “I’m doing my best.”
“Maybe you’re just not a cat person.”
“I have to be,” I said qu
ietly as I heaved myself to my feet and shoved the chair back under the table. Alessia was connected to me, whether she—or I—liked it or not.
My mother was quiet for a long moment. “Why is this cat so important to you?”
Shrugging, I replied, “I can’t explain. She just is.”
Without meaning to, I tuned in to Mom’s thoughts. This isn’t normal. There’s no reason for her to have attached herself so thoroughly to a cat she didn’t want, not to mention a cat who has done nothing but hide or scratch her. Maybe I should make some phone calls. Should I put her in therapy? This has to stem from something. AJ’s accident could have...
I spoke up before I heard anymore. “And you don’t have to worry about me. I’m not going crazy.”
She looked stricken, one hand fluttering to the countertop as she stared at me. “I-I didn’t say….”
With a knowing grin, I just said, “I can tell by that look in your eyes, Mom.” And then I left the room to find my cat.
***
AJ
Through the open car window, I could smell the ocean.
It was weird. I mean, a whole different world kind of weird. Back home in Greenwood, we were completely landlocked with nothing but a few measly, gross lakes that smelled like sewage runoff. Salem smelled like fish and salt, and the air was so crisp and fresh I wanted to yell, “Stop the car!” and get out and do cartwheels in the grass.
Instead, I moped.
Beside me in the backseat, Krysta nudged me with an elbow. “Would you lighten up?”
“I already miss home.”
“We just got here.”
I sighed. There was no way I could make Krysta understand. She had left behind a dad who drank too much for my great-aunt, who was, I had to admit, pretty awesome. There were no negatives to her situation.
But me? I had teams who depended on me. I had a life. I was supposed to be a star at our new school.
We were supposed to be with Sophie.
“I bet you’ll love it here,” Krysta went on, whipping open her black leather purse and pulling out a mirror. “I read about all these great witchcraft museums, not to mention shopping. Plus, there are tons of places to get psychic readings. Wouldn’t that be cool?”
