The Five Paths

by Isobel Bird

  “T.J. is in our history class, too,” Cooper told her friends. “I think that’s about the only real class we have together, which is fine with me. Too much togetherness would make me nuts.”

  “Ever the romantic,” Sasha teased.

  “So what should we do on our last night of freedom?” Kate asked.

  “Movie?” suggested Annie.

  “Dinner?” Sasha offered.

  “New moon ritual?” proposed Cooper.

  “It is a new moon, isn’t it?” Annie said. “What a good time to be starting a new school year.”

  “How about all three, then?” Kate said. “We can rent a video, hang out at Annie’s, and do a little ritual. You know, something to get things started off on the right foot.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Annie said.

  “I’m in,” confirmed Sasha.

  “Sure,” agreed Cooper. “But what kind of ritual should we do?”

  “Technically, I’m not supposed to do rituals,” Sasha reminded them. “Remember?”

  Although Sasha lived with one of the coven members who taught the weekly Wicca study group that Cooper, Annie, and Kate were a part of, Sasha herself wasn’t in the group. She came to some of the coven’s open rituals, but she wasn’t officially a student yet. All the problems she had spent her life running from had crashed down on her when the rest of them had undergone the dedication ceremony marking the beginning of their year and a day of studying witchcraft, and it had been decided that she should wait until the next year’s ceremony before starting on her journey toward deciding if she wanted to be initiated as a witch.

  “This won’t be a big-deal ritual,” Kate said. “I’m thinking of something really simple. Maybe we could each bring something to bless. You know, like a good luck charm for the year.”

  “Good thinking,” Annie said. “We can light a little fire in the cauldron and pass things through it or something.”

  Kate looked at Cooper and Sasha. “Sound okay?” she asked.

  The others nodded.

  “Good,” Kate said. “Cooper, you’re in charge of the video. Annie, you’re the cauldron wrangler and ritual designer. Sasha and I will be on food detail. Any requests?”

  “What movie do we want to see?” asked Cooper.

  “Something spooky,” Sasha said.

  “Something Leonardo DiCaprio–free,” Annie added.

  “Nothing with subtitles,” Kate stated firmly.

  “Got it,” Cooper said. “I think I know just the thing.”

  “How about food?” said Sasha.

  “No meat for me,” Cooper replied.

  “No pizza or Chinese,” Annie told them. “We’ve done those to death.”

  “We’ll surprise you, then,” Kate said. “Okay, we all have our assignments. I say we break up and meet at Annie’s at seven. Don’t forget to bring your objects for blessing.”

  They walked to the end of the pier and then went their separate ways. But four hours later they were all together again, this time in Annie’s big bedroom at the top of her house.

  “The entertainment has arrived,” Cooper had announced as she walked in swinging a bag from the video store. Kate and Cooper were already there, several bags of food sitting on the floor.

  Cooper sniffed the air. “I smell lemongrass,” she said. “Could we be having Thai this evening?”

  “You got it,” Kate answered as she opened one of the bags. “Pad thai for everyone.”

  “Plus some pad prighking, green curry with tofu, and tom yum,” continued Sasha. “So what’s the movie?”

  “Ah,” Cooper replied, pulling a tape out of the bag. “I have chosen the perfect film. Creepy yet romantic. No subtitles or Leonardo. Plus, it has some witchy stuff in it. Not to mention Johnny Depp, which elevates it to instant classic.”

  “Sleepy Hollow!” Annie, Kate, and Sasha said in unison.

  “None other,” Cooper confirmed as she tossed the video onto Annie’s bed. “So what’s the order for the evening?”

  “I think dinner, ritual, and then movie,” Annie said. “All in favor?”

  The others answered her by sitting down and opening the containers of food. Serving spoons flashed and hands reached across one another, and soon every plate was piled with noodles, rice, and spicy green beans, and the tom yum was splashing in the little bowls Annie had brought up from the kitchen to hold the soup.

  “There’s nothing like chili paste to wake you up,” Cooper said, taking a big bite of the pad prighking with its spicy orange sauce coating the crisp beans.

  The others murmured their agreement, their mouths too full to talk. For a while the only sound in the room was that of everyone chewing and making noises of contentment. When the last noodle was slurped up and the last bit of tofu was gone, they all leaned back and sighed happily.

  “Ritual time,” Annie said. “Can you guys clear this stuff up while I get ready?”

  The others nodded and got to work. They carried the empty containers downstairs to the garbage and put the dishes they’d used in the kitchen sink. When they came back they saw that Annie had put the three-legged cauldron in the center of the room and lit a circle of candles around it.

  “All set,” Annie said. “Let’s fire this baby up.”

  The four of them stood around the cauldron inside the circle of candles. Annie held out one hand to Sasha and one to Kate, who were on either side of her. They in turn took Cooper’s hands, so that they were all linked together.

  “We’re going to cast the circle in a different way tonight,” Annie informed them. “I want to try something new. Since there are four of us I want us each to take a different direction. I’ll be east, Sasha will be south, Cooper will be west, and Kate will be north. I want us each to think about our direction, the element it represents, and the qualities associated with it. Then we’re going to go around the circle, each of us saying a word that comes to mind when we think about our direction. We’ll go around a couple of times. Try to imagine a circle of light forming as we do it.”

  She paused for a moment as they all thought about the elements they were representing. Then she said in a clear voice, “Inspiration.”

  “Passion,” Sasha said, following her.

  “Mystery,” said Cooper.

  “Strength,” Kate said, finishing the first round.

  They continued, each of them saying a word. As they did the words formed a kind of chant, their voices rising and falling as they thought of different things to say. “Flying, dancing, diving, planting, wind, fire, waves, stone,” they said, the words combining to create a rhythm. “Bird, dragon, whale, bear, birth, life, sleep, death.”

  After they’d gone around several times Annie said, “The circle is cast.” She let go of Sasha’s and Kate’s hands and motioned for them all to sit down. Then she took a bottle of clear liquid, opened it, and poured the liquid into the cauldron. Striking a match, she dropped it in as well, and the cauldron sprang to life with bright flames that burned without smoke.

  “Rubbing alcohol,” she said as the others looked at the fire. “A little trick I picked up in chemistry class.”

  “Very nice,” Cooper said.

  “Did you all bring something to bless in the sacred fire?” Annie asked.

  The others rummaged around in their pockets and took out the things they’d brought. They held them in their hands as Annie spoke.

  “The new moon is a time for new beginnings,” she said. “Tomorrow we start a new year at school. We each want to accomplish different things this year. The fire in the cauldron represents the fires of inspiration, courage, and passion. By passing our sacred objects through the fire and stating what we hope they will bring to us as we start this new journey, we’re using the magic within ourselves to make what we want to happen come true.”

  She held up her object. It
was a pen, an old-fashioned silver one. “This belonged to my father,” she said. “It was one of the few things that survived the fire. He used it to write in his journal. One of the things I want to do this year is write for the school paper. This pen represents that, and I hope that when I write I will write with honesty and that my words will help people see the truth.”

  She passed the pen slowly through the flames that jumped up from the cauldron. They wrapped around the sides, coating the pen in fire, before she drew it clear of them.

  Kate went next, holding up her object for everyone to see. It was a ring. “This is a ring that Tyler gave me about a month after we started dating,” she explained. “I haven’t really worn it much lately because of what’s been going on between him and me. It’s a Celtic knot design, and to me it represents how everything is connected. I know that there are a lot of things in my life that need to be connected, and I hope that wearing this ring again will remind me of that.”

  She passed the ring quickly through the flames, adding, “I hope that the strength of this fire will fill me and help me to do what I need to do.”

  When Kate was finished Sasha knelt in front of the fire. “This might be a little weird,” she said. She held up a key. “This is the key to the front door of our house. I’ve never really had a key to my own house before. This is the first time I’ve ever really felt at home anywhere. So it means a lot to me. I want to bless it because I really want this to work.”

  She put the end of the key into the flames for a few seconds, looking at the fire with a peaceful expression. When she pulled the key out again, she held it tightly in her hand.

  “It’s so warm,” she said, laughing.

  “My turn,” Cooper said. She held out her palm. On it lay something small and round and silver; it was attached to a black cord. It was a circle with a five-pointed star inside it. The lines forming the points of the star were connected, and it had one corner pointing up, two corners pointing to the sides, and two corners pointing down.

  “This is a pentacle I got at Crones’ Circle,” Cooper announced. “Actually, I bought it today right before I went to the video store. I’ve been looking at it for a couple of weeks now, and when Kate said we should each bring a talisman of some kind I figured the time was right to buy it. As you all know, the pentacle is one of the strongest symbols of the Craft. This one symbolizes my commitment to studying Wicca. And I bought it at the store where we all study, which seemed even more appropriate.”

  She dangled the pentacle from its cord and held it in the fire. “Blessing this with fire is also symbolic for me,” she said. “It feels like I’ve been jumping into fires a lot since I started all of this, and every time it’s made me stronger. I hope this one does the same thing.”

  She removed the pentacle from the fire and put it around her neck, knotting the cord in the back. It hung just beneath the hollow of her throat, glinting against her pale skin.

  “Okay,” Cooper said. “Ritual’s over. Now let’s open this circle and get to Johnny Depp!”

  CHAPTER 2

  Kate fumbled with the combination lock on her new locker. She kept missing the second number, and she was getting annoyed at having to start over every time she screwed up.

  “Why can’t we just have our old lockers?” she said irritably.

  “Because then the new freshmen wouldn’t have any,” said Annie reasonably. “Every year we all move up a little. Last year’s seniors leave to make way for last year’s juniors. We move up to make room for the old freshmen. And the newbies come in from junior high and take their places. It’s like shark teeth.”

  “Like what?” asked Kate, looking at the piece of paper in her hand and trying her combination again.

  “Shark teeth,” Annie repeated. “Sharks’ teeth are constantly falling out and being replaced. It’s like they’re on a conveyer belt. The old ones are pushed forward as the new ones come in behind them. I saw it on the Discovery Channel.”

  “Why can’t you watch Buffy like every other teenage girl?” Kate said, finally getting her locker to open and sticking some notebooks and her lunch inside it.

  “Hey, kids,” said Cooper, walking up to them with Sasha. “Happy first day back in hell.”

  “Hey,” Annie said back, distracted by trying to figure out what to take with her and what to leave in her backpack.

  “You wore that to school?” Kate said, sounding surprised.

  Annie looked up at Cooper. She was dressed in jeans and a Kittie T-shirt featuring the cover of the band’s CD and the words MAKE ME PURR scrawled across it. Her hair, which was always changing color, had been returned to some semblance of her normal blondish brown color and was sticking up in a controlled mess like it usually was.

  “What?” Annie asked Kate. “She looks fine to me.”

  Kate nodded toward Cooper. “Look at her neck,” she said quietly.

  “Do I have a hickey?” Cooper asked, slapping her hand to her neck.

  “No,” Kate said. “It’s your necklace.”

  Annie looked again and noticed the silver circle from the night before.

  “You mean the pentacle?” Cooper asked. “What about it?”

  “Everyone can see it,” said Kate, as if that should be obvious to everyone.

  “What’s wrong with that?” Sasha said.

  Kate sighed. “Don’t you think that’s asking for trouble?”

  Cooper looked perplexed. “Not really,” she said. “Anyway, I thought the whole point of having a talisman was to have it on you. You’re wearing your ring.”

  “Yes,” Kate said. “But my ring isn’t quite so obvious. And I’m sure Annie and Sasha have theirs in their pockets or backpacks or somewhere discreet. Yours is right out there in the open.”

  Cooper rolled her eyes. “I really don’t think anyone is going to notice,” she said. “They’re all too busy worrying about everyone else looking at them. Besides, how many people here are going to know what this is?”

  “Cooper’s right, Kate,” Annie told her friend. “I don’t think anyone will even notice it.”

  “Besides,” Cooper said, “they’ll be too busy wondering what happened to Annie.”

  Annie looked down at her outfit. She was wearing a gray skirt and a lavender sweater with a white T-shirt under it. Her hair hung loose about her shoulders, and she had put on a little makeup. An improved sense of style was something else she’d retained from her time with Freya. She’d gotten used to it, and it hadn’t occurred to her that the other students hadn’t seen the new her yet.

  “I still think it’s a bad idea,” Kate said. “But whatever.”

  “What’s first on the agenda for everyone today?” Sasha asked.

  “Algebra,” Cooper said, looking at her schedule. “The perfect way to start the school year.”

  “English,” Kate replied.

  “Same here,” Sasha said.

  “I’ve got Spanish,” Annie answered.

  “I told you to take French,” Kate chided her. “Cooper and I have that third period.”

  “I couldn’t fit it in and still take calculus,” said Annie.

  “Like anyone would want to take calculus,” Cooper retorted as they started to walk down the hall. “I guess we’ll see you second period, then, in Greeley’s lair.”

  They split up, with Sasha and Kate heading upstairs to Mr. Tharpe’s English class while Annie went to Ms. Lopez’s room for Spanish and Cooper headed to Mr. Niemark’s room for yet another year of mathematic excitement. Cooper’s room came first in the hall, so Annie found herself walking alone to her class.

  She was actually looking forward to Spanish. She’d taken it in junior high but had skipped it the previous two years. Now she wanted to get back into it. There were a couple of Spanish-speaking residents at Shady Hills, where she volunteered a few afternoons a week, and she thought
it would be nice to speak to them in their own language. Plus, it would look good on her college applications. She’d had to test to get into this third-year class after not taking it for so long, and she’d been relieved to have passed fairly easily. Still, she knew she had a lot of work to do.

  She stepped into the class and almost ran out of the room. There were a couple of other students finding their seats and chatting with one another. They all seemed pretty excited to be back with their friends. But sitting in the back row, a scowl on her face, was Sherrie Adams.

  What is she doing here? Annie thought as she looked at Sherrie. She’d been trying to not think about running into Sherrie, but now she had not only run into her but had to be in the same class with her. So much for getting off to a good start, she thought miserably.

  She didn’t know what to do. The last time she’d seen Sherrie had been in a clothing store, where Annie had slapped Sherrie after she had made a remark about Annie’s parents. It had been a wonderful feeling at the time, but now Annie just felt sick. She knew Sherrie wouldn’t ignore what had happened. She also knew from something Jessica—who had witnessed the incident—had said that Sherrie had been stewing about it ever since it happened. Who knew what horrible plan she had come up with for getting back at Annie.

  Annie stood in the doorway, unable to move. She felt both angry and stupid. Freya would have known what to do, she thought. After all, it had been Freya who had slapped Sherrie. Well, not entirely Freya. Annie had wanted to slap Sherrie. But she never would have done it without Freya’s influence. Now, without the goddess around to help her out, she was on her own, and she had no idea how to act.

  Then she realized that Sherrie wasn’t even looking at her. She sat in her chair, an unpleasant look plastered on her face as she stared straight ahead. It was as if she hadn’t even seen Annie in the doorway. But Annie knew that wasn’t possible. Of all people, Sherrie would be the one to be keeping an eye on who was coming into the class, if only to try to get the cutest guy to sit by her. But there she sat, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the person who had humiliated her a few weeks before was now only fifteen feet away.