The Five Paths

by Isobel Bird

  “So what you’re telling me is that you’re really afraid of what kind of trouble will be caused if students and their parents start complaining about this?” he asked.

  “I probably wouldn’t put it exactly like that, but yes,” agreed the principal. “Stephen, you and I have known each other a long time. You know how I feel about the rights of young people. I wouldn’t be in this position if I didn’t. But you also know what kind of times we’re living in. I don’t just answer to myself. I answer to the parents, to the superintendent of schools, and to the school board. I have to anticipate how they are going to feel about this situation, and I honestly don’t think they’re going to be supportive. That’s why I’m asking Cooper to do this now, before it becomes a real problem.”

  “Why don’t we find out how they feel?” Mr. Rivers said.

  Mrs. Browning and Cooper both looked at him.

  “What do you mean?” asked the principal.

  “Let’s take this to the school board,” said Cooper’s father.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Principal Browning.

  “When’s the next meeting?” asked Mr. Rivers.

  The principal looked at her calendar. “Friday,” she said.

  “Can you get this added to the agenda?”

  “I don’t know,” said Mrs. Browning doubtfully.

  “How about if you tell them I threatened to take this to court?” asked Mr. Rivers.

  Principal Browning raised an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t,” she said.

  “You bet I would,” answered Cooper’s father. “The courts are all over children’s rights and freedom of expression issues right now. I could have this in front of a judge in two weeks.”

  “In that case, I think they might be willing to hear what you have to say,” said Mrs. Browning. “I’ll call the president of the board and have a talk with him tonight. But if he agrees, then you’ll have to be ready to make a pretty convincing argument on Friday night. They’ll vote on this, and you’ll need a majority to win.”

  “We’ll get it,” said Mr. Rivers confidently. “You just get it on the agenda. I’ll do the rest.”

  He looked over at Cooper and grinned. “I told you we’d work something out,” he said.

  Cooper looked at Mrs. Browning and smiled. “Thanks,” she said.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” replied the principal. “This battle has just started.”

  “Does this mean I can come back to school?” Cooper asked.

  Mrs. Browning nodded. “Sixth period is starting in ten minutes. Why don’t you get to class?”

  “Lunch,” Cooper said brightly. “I’m there.”

  She stood up and started for the door. “Can I keep the pentacle on?” she asked hesitantly.

  The principal looked at Mr. Rivers. “If your lawyer promises to back off, then you can wear it until the official hearing on Friday.”

  “Hey, Dad, back off,” Cooper said with mock forcefulness.

  “Whatever you say, boss,” Mr. Rivers replied.

  Cooper nodded. “That’s what I like to hear,” she said. “Especially given your exorbitant rates.”

  CHAPTER 8

  “What did you think?”

  Annie was standing in Mr. Barrows’s room. She’d gotten there a little early so that she could talk to him before the other students who worked on the newspaper arrived. He had her editorial on the desk in front of him. She could see that he had written on it in a couple of places with red ink. She didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

  “I like it,” he said. “I think it shows a lot of passion, and it brings up an important issue.”

  Annie smiled. He likes it, she thought happily.

  “But I also think that it would cause an uproar if we ran it,” he continued.

  The warm feeling inside of Annie melted away as she heard him say that. She’d worked so hard on the piece, and she’d really wanted him to use it in the paper.

  “This will be our first issue of the Sentinel this year,” Mr. Barrows told her. “Usually we start off with pieces about the upcoming dances and which clubs are doing what. You know: ‘The French society will be holding a fudge sale,’ kind of stuff. This is a lot heavier than what we normally do.”

  “But isn’t that sort of the point of having a paper?” asked Annie. “I mean, isn’t it supposed to be a place where students can talk about what’s going on in their lives?”

  Mr. Barrows smiled. “Spoken like a true newspaper person,” he said. “Are you sure this is the first time you’ve worked on a paper?”

  “So if that’s what we’re here for, why aren’t you running my piece?” Annie answered.

  “Who said I wasn’t running it?” her teacher asked.

  “Then you are?” Annie said, feeling good again.

  “That depends,” Mr. Barrows told her.

  “On what?” asked Annie, feeling as if her emotions were being taken on a roller coaster ride.

  “On you,” came the response.

  “Me?” said Annie. “Why on me?”

  “Do you really want it to run?” Mr. Barrows queried.

  “I wrote it, didn’t I?” replied Annie.

  “Yes,” said Mr. Barrows. “But writing it is only the first part. It’s what happens after people read it that you need to consider. Are you ready for all of the questions that are sure to come at you? Are you ready for people who don’t know you to talk about you?”

  “They already do that,” Annie informed him. “And yes, I’m ready for all of that.”

  “Then if you’re sure about it, we’ll put it in next week’s edition. It will come out Monday.”

  Annie practically hugged him, she was so excited. “This is perfect,” she said. “Cooper is going in front of the school board on Friday to argue her case. I know people will be talking about that on Monday. Then they’ll see my piece as well. There won’t be any way for them not to notice this. Thank you so much.”

  “You might want to save that thanks until you see what the response to your piece is,” Mr. Barrows told her.

  Annie couldn’t wait to tell her friends that her editorial was going to be in the paper. She got her chance while they were all walking home together.

  “So it will come out Monday morning,” she said excitedly after recounting her conversation with Mr. Barrows.

  “If Cooper wins on Friday it sort of won’t matter, will it?” asked Kate.

  Annie shrugged. “It will still get people talking,” she said.

  “That’s for sure,” said T.J. He was walking with Cooper, holding her hand. He seemed to have calmed down a little since hearing about her suspension, but Annie thought he was still acting kind of withdrawn.

  “So how are things with Brian?” asked Sasha.

  “I actually haven’t seen much of him,” Annie told her. “I’ve been so busy. But we’re going out tonight, so I’ll see him then.”

  “What does he think about all of this witch stuff?” T.J. asked her suddenly.

  Annie looked at Cooper and Kate. “I haven’t talked to him about it,” she told T.J.

  “But I’m sure he’ll be fully supportive,” Cooper said brightly, giving T.J. a kiss on the cheek. “Just like you are.”

  “Not to poke a sleeping dog or anything,” Kate said, “but you do seem a lot cooler about this than you did yesterday, T.J.”

  “Yeah, well, I kind of took out my frustrations on the punching bag my brothers set up in the basement a few years ago,” he said. “Nothing like pounding a big bag of sand to help a guy get over something.”

  “How very butch of you,” Sasha commented. “Next thing you know you’ll be chopping wood.”

  “Doubtful,” T.J. replied, playfully kicking her in the butt. “We have gas heat.”

  “I forgot to ask, h
ow did your little talk with Jessica and Tara go?” Annie asked Kate, suddenly remembering that Kate had promised to fill those two in on the details of Cooper’s suspension and the exact meaning of her pentacle.

  “Not quite as well as T.J.’s boxing catharsis,” Kate answered. “I tried explaining it to them but it just kept coming out wrong. I guess I was dancing around the subject too much.”

  “Again,” Cooper said meaningfully.

  “Give her a break,” T.J. told his girlfriend. “She’s trying. Not everyone’s as good at being a poster child for witchcraft as you are.”

  “Well, on Monday I guarantee those two will have a lot more questions than they have now,” Cooper said. “You’d better figure out how you’re going to answer them.”

  “Tell me about it,” Kate said under her breath.

  They reached the point where they all went separate ways, and said their good-byes. Annie walked home with a spring in her step. She was going to have something published! Sure, it was just in the school newspaper. It wasn’t like it was in a big magazine, or even a local paper or anything. But it was her words, and that made her feel proud of herself. She wished her parents could read it. But at least Aunt Sarah and Meg will, she thought happily. She wasn’t going to tell them about it yet. She was going to surprise them with it on Monday, when she’d bring the paper home for them to see.

  When she got home she found her aunt and her sister in the kitchen.

  “Hey there,” Aunt Sarah said. “How was your day?”

  “Eventful,” Annie said mysteriously, unable to resist.

  Her aunt looked at Meg. “What do you want to bet she’s not going to tell us what happened?”

  “Maybe you should threaten to send her to bed without any supper if she doesn’t,” said Meg. “Like Max in Where the Wild Things Are.”

  “Hmm,” Aunt Sarah said, pretending to consider the suggestion. “Do you think it would work?”

  “No,” Meg said firmly. “But maybe you should do it anyway.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Annie told her little sister. “But for your information I’m having dinner with Brian tonight anyway. We’re going for pizza. But I’ll be back early. I have a lot of homework.”

  “I want to come!” Meg said instantly.

  “Uh-huh,” Annie said, shaking her head. “Not after you tried to send me to my room.”

  Meg laughed, and Annie tousled her little sister’s hair. “I’m going to go get dressed,” Annie said, heading for the stairs that led to her room.

  “You’re already dressed,” Meg pointed out sensibly.

  “I’m going to go get dressed in something better,” Annie clarified.

  She went to her room, removed her school clothes, and opened her closet. What should she wear? she wondered. She’d recently purchased quite a lot of new clothes, many of which she hadn’t even worn. She looked through them, trying to select something she thought Brian might like. Finally she settled on a pair of black jeans and a powder blue sweater set. Simple yet elegant, she thought as she pulled the clothes on. After putting her shoes on she went back downstairs, said good-bye to Aunt Sarah and Meg, and went to meet Brian in town.

  When she walked into the pizza parlor she saw Brian sitting in a booth. He waved at her and she walked over, sliding in across from him.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I already ordered,” he said. “I remember you said you liked pepperoni and extra cheese, so that’s what I got.”

  “Perfect,” Annie told him. Although she was thrilled to be having dinner with Brian, she was a little nervous. She wanted to talk to him about the situation with Cooper, and about her own involvement in Wicca, before he read about it in the paper.

  “Hey,” Brian said before she could begin a conversation. “We got some free tickets at the store to the Cassandra Wilson concert at the university next month. She’s the singer whose CD I got you to buy, remember?”

  “How could I forget?” Annie answered. The CD had quickly become one of her favorites, and not just because it had been the result of her meeting Brian at the record store where he worked.

  “They’re ours if we want them,” he told her. “Interested?”

  “Do you even have to ask?” replied Annie. “Of course I want to go.”

  Brian reached out and took her hand. “I can’t tell you how glad I am we met,” he said. “It’s made being new here a lot easier. I just wish we saw each other more often in school.”

  “Then you’d get sick of me,” said Annie.

  Brian shook his head. “I don’t think I could ever get sick of you,” he said.

  Annie knew she was blushing. She wasn’t used to hearing a guy say nice things to her. Sometimes being with Brian still seemed like a wonderful dream, and she was afraid she’d wake up and find out it had all been in her imagination. He was pretty much everything she’d ever hoped for in a potential boyfriend—fun to be with, smart, and just a nice guy. It didn’t hurt that he was easy to look at either.

  “Um, I want to talk to you about something,” she said, deciding that the time was right for the conversation she knew they needed to have.

  “Uh-oh,” Brian said. “Nothing good ever started with those words.”

  Annie laughed. “No,” she said. “It’s nothing bad. I just want to talk to you about Cooper.”

  “I saw her back in school this afternoon,” said Brian. “I guess that thing about her good luck charm was cleared up, right?”

  “Not yet,” Annie said. “That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

  Brian looked puzzled. Annie knew he must be wondering what Cooper’s suspension had to do with him. She searched for the right words.

  “Cooper is going to go before the school board on Friday,” she said. “She’s going to argue that she should be able to wear her necklace.”

  “Okay,” said Brian. “But I still don’t see what the big deal about it is.”

  Annie leaned back in the booth. “This is about more than just the necklace,” she said. “See, that symbol she wears is more than just a good luck charm.”

  Brian studied Annie’s face. “What is it, then?” he asked.

  “It’s called a pentagram,” explained Annie. “It’s a symbol used in Wicca. Do you know what that is?”

  “Wicca,” Brian repeated. “Not really, no.”

  “It’s another name for witchcraft,” said Annie. “Some people like to say it’s the official name, but that’s not really right either. Wicca is a kind of witchcraft, actually, although most people think the words mean the same thing.”

  “Cooper is a witch?” Brian asked, laughing. “Is she a good witch or a bad witch?”

  Annie knew he was just repeating the famous line from The Wizard of Oz and not really asking her a question. From his response, it was clear that he really didn’t think it was possible that Cooper was a witch at all. Suddenly she realized that this was going to be harder than she’d thought.

  “No,” she said. “Cooper isn’t a witch. But she is studying Wicca. That’s why she wears that necklace.”

  Brian looked at her. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Annie shook her head. “No,” she said. “I’m not.”

  Brian leaned back and looked at Annie with an expression of puzzlement mixed with disbelief. “Come on,” he said. “There are no witches nowadays. That’s just stuff from fairy tales and movies.”

  Annie swallowed before she spoke. “Actually,” she said, “there are a lot of witches today. You probably just don’t know it because you’ve never met one, or at least think you haven’t.”

  “And you’re telling me your friend is studying to be one?” Brian said. “Are you serious? You’re sure she hasn’t been reading too many of those Harry Potter books or something?”

  The conversation wasn’t going the way she’d hoped it would. Brian didn’
t seem to even want to acknowledge that witches might be real, let alone that he was dating someone who was probably going to be one in a matter of months. Annie hadn’t planned on this kind of reaction from him, and she wasn’t sure how she should proceed.

  “Why are you telling me all of this anyway?” Brian said before she could start speaking again.

  Oh, boy, Annie thought. Here we go. This was the part where she was supposed to tell him how she was studying Wicca, too, and how she hoped he would understand that. But if he didn’t believe that Cooper was involved in the Craft, what would he think if Annie said that she was? He’d probably think you were nuts, she told herself.

  “I wrote an editorial for the school paper about Cooper’s being suspended,” Annie said instead. “Well, it’s really about the issue of free speech. It’s going to come out on Monday, and I thought you should know about it. People are probably going to talk about it, so I didn’t want it to come as a surprise.”

  “That’s great!” Brian said, surprising her. “I can’t wait to read it. Why would you think I’d be upset by that?”

  This is where you tell him about yourself, she thought. But although her mind wanted to do it, her mouth wasn’t cooperating. She could imagine the words in her head, but she couldn’t get her lips to form them. What had seemed like such a good thing to do when she’d gone over it in her head was turning out to be a lot harder in practice. Now I know how Kate feels, Annie realized. Thinking about telling Brian that she was studying Wicca was one thing; actually telling him was altogether different.

  “I just thought you should know,” Annie said stupidly. “That way, if anyone says anything about it—or about me—you’ll know what it’s about.”

  “I’m sure all they’ll be saying is what a brilliant writer you are,” said Brian reassuringly.

  Annie smiled, feeling like a total failure. She was thankful that the waitress came with their pizza at that moment and she didn’t have to say anything else, at least not immediately. She busied herself with a slice, concentrating on pulling the cheese off and popping it into her mouth.