Testing: A 13 Covens Magical World Adventure (YA)

by Cassandra

  “What?” she said, her eyebrows raised.

  “I can’t take being on punishment anymore,” her friend elaborated.

  “You’re not the only one,” Eric said.

  “Right,” Jessica agreed. “So why are you looking at me as if I can do something about it? I’m still on punishment too. It sucks. And to make matters worse—my parents have been out of town and they’re back today. Which means now, they’re about to find out what happened. I guarantee they will respond worse than my grandma did.”

  “You see—that’s the thing,” Ashley said. “You can do something about it.”

  Jessica blinked at her.

  “Oh, come on, Jess. Can’t you…like, hypnotize all our parents to get us out of this?” Ashley asked hopefully.

  “Uhm…if you haven’t noticed, that’s exactly what got us into this situation in the first place,” she huffed in response. “So no, I am not…hypnotizing anyone else.”

  Sara sighed beside her. “I have to admit, it did sound like a good idea at first.”

  “Yeah, it did at the concert too, and look how that turned out,” Eric said.

  “Exactly,” Jessica said.

  “It’s only a little while longer, guys,” Kacey said and tried to restore some optimism to the table. “It’ll be over soon, and we’ll all be free again.”

  “Maybe for you,” Ashley said miserably. “My parents have lessened and worsened my punishment at the same time.”

  Eric tilted his head. “How?”

  “They saw how miserable I was and must have felt sorry for me. So they offered to allow me to watch TV. There was a catch, though. If I wanted TV privileges, I had to agree to an extra overall week of punishment. I thought it sounded like a fair deal until I realized how stupid TV is these days. There’s absolutely nothing on to watch, ever.”

  “You should check out this show called Detectives,” Jessica said. “It’s hilarious. About this team of detectives who go around investigating all these weird cases…” Her voice trailed off as she suddenly realized her grave mistake.

  Her friends stared back at her, intrigued and confused.

  “I’ve never heard of it,” Eric said. “It’s called Detectives, you say?” He reached into his pocket, presumably to retrieve his phone before he remembered he didn’t have it. “Ah, right. The ʼrents took my phone. Someone, look the show up for me.”

  “I’m on it,” Kacey said beside Jessica and proceeded to pull Google up.

  Jessica’s face warmed and she swore at herself in her head.

  “I don’t see anything about a show like that,” Kacey reported.

  Of course, because it’s not on mundane television. Dammit, how could I be so careless? Jessica coughed. “Um…never mind. It’s…um… It’s a really old show. The only reason I know about it is because my grandma watches. It’s um…probably not even on the air anymore.”

  “Well, maybe it’s on some kind of streaming service,” Ashley said. “I’ll look it up when I get home. I desperately need something to watch. It’s a comedy series? Who acts in it?”

  Jessica swallowed and shook her head. “N-nobody relevant. And it’s probably not on streaming services either. Like I said, it’s really old and outdated. In fact, you guys probably wouldn’t even like it. Forget I said anything.”

  Eric shook his head. “No, Jess. I like vintage TV shows. Does your grandma have it on DVD or something?”

  Sara laughed. “Knowing Jess’s grandma, it’s probably on VHS.”

  “Right,” Jessica said and seized the excuse. She knew none of her friends had VCRs, so she hoped it would deter them from asking about the show.

  “Well, we’ll have to schedule a day that we can come over your grandma’s place and watch the show together then,” Kacey said and returned his phone to his pocket.

  “Yeah, once we’re off punishment,” Sara said.

  “It’s still weird, though, that Google doesn’t have anything about it. Google knows everything,” Kacey said.

  “So—where are we going for our date?” Jessica blurted, anxious to change the subject any way she could.

  Thankfully, she succeeded. Everyone at the table grew silent, surprised by her sudden outburst—none more so than Kacey.

  He cleared his throat and a slow grin spread over his face, and his eyes twinkled.

  Across the table, Ashley wolf-whistled at them, while Sara laughed and Eric turned his head, visibly annoyed.

  “Um…wherever you want to go,” Kacey answered. “Do you wanna see a movie?” He quickly shook his head. “No, scratch that idea. Look what happened last time.”

  Jessica laughed nervously and felt Ashley’s and Sara’s eyes on her. She had never exactly revealed the full details of her first date with Kacey to them.

  “Ah, let’s see,” he continued, brainstorming. “I’m not so keen on the ice cream shop again, for obvious reasons. Concerts are out, considering the predicament we’re in now because of one—even though, don’t get me wrong, it was totally worth it.” He grinned at Jessica again, and she saw something distinctly intimate in his gaze. That told her very clearly that he recalled the kisses they’d shared at the concert.

  Her face warmed again and Jessica averted her eyes. “How about bowling?” she suggested. She wanted to seem invested in the conversation and not only like she had tried to change the subject.

  Kacey clapped his hands together. “Bingo! Bowling, it is. You know, once we’re not grounded anymore.”

  At that moment, the bell rang.

  Jessica breathed a sigh of relief and practically bolted from the table in her eagerness to escape the awkwardness. Still, there was a trace of excitement there too when she thought about going out with Kacey again.

  The excitement of having a plan to fight the demon, in addition to the prospect of going out with Kacey again, was enough to help Jessica through the rest of the school day. When the final bell rang, though, her excitement quickly vanished.

  Her phone had vibrated the instant she got into her truck. When she fished it out of her backpack, she saw that she’d received a message from Grandma Ethel.

  I suggest you go straight to your parents’ house after school. Get it over with.

  She couldn’t argue, knowing it probably was best to simply get it over with, no matter how much she wished she could avoid it altogether.

  After she’d added her extra layers for warmth, Jessica cranked the truck engine, knowing there was no sense in prolonging the inevitable. She began to drive and turned the radio on. As if to mock her, a song from the band she’d seen in concert played.

  Sometime later, she pulled up in front of her parents’ house.

  “Here goes nothing,” she said with a sigh and felt an odd mixture of nostalgia and dread.

  Living with Grandma Ethel certainly had been interesting thus far, but a part of her missed her real home with her parents.

  So much had changed since that fateful day when she’d arrived home from school to find Chad and Roger seated on the couch. The memory brought a bittersweet smile to her face. Now, as she headed up the front porch, the smile wobbled away as she envisioned her dad’s reaction to finding out she’d snuck into a twenty-one and over crowd and gotten drunk.

  She didn’t have her keys with her, so she pressed the doorbell. Shuffling footsteps approached the door before her mother opened it.

  “Jessica!” she exclaimed, pulled her across the threshold, and wrapped her into a tight hug. “How are you, sweetie?”

  “Fine.” Jessica forced a smile onto her face. “How are you? How was your trip?”

  “Excellent!” Theresa exclaimed. “I can’t wait to tell you all about it. But first—what is it that your grandma says you need to tell us?”

  She sighed and closed her eyes briefly. “Grandma already called you?”

  “Yeah. She told me you’d come over straight after school because you had something important to say. Your father went out to get food so we could talk about whatever it i
s.”

  Jessica shifted on her feet. Knowing her father wasn’t there tempted her to blurt everything out immediately. Her mom was so much easier to talk to when it came to complicated matters.

  “Uh oh,” Theresa said when she observed Jessica’s expression. “It’s that serious, huh? Do you want to wait for your father, or do you want to tell me first so that I can break it to him later?”

  “Yes! You’d do that?”

  “Sure, if it makes it easier for you. I want you to feel comfortable telling me whatever it is you need to tell me, Jess. Come on, let’s sit down.” She grabbed Jessica by the hand, led her to the kitchen, and gestured for her to take a seat at the table. “Would you like some hot chocolate?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Once two steaming cups were before them, Theresa sat across from her daughter and studied her carefully.

  At the curiosity on her mother’s face, Jessica wondered if the whole ordeal was made to seem more serious than it really was.

  Don’t all teenagers get into this kind of trouble at least once?

  She took a deep breath. “Mom,” she said, and the rest came out in a long rush. “I used magic to sneak myself and some friends into the twenty-one and up section at a concert, and we got drunk.”

  Theresa blinked and seemingly tried to process the rapid rush of words that had left her daughter’s mouth in one breath.

  “I’ve learned my lesson already, though, I swear,” Jessica continued. “After the hangover I had, I never want to touch alcohol again. And don’t worry, Grandma Ethel already punished me. She’s made me do garden work in the freezing cold. Do you have any idea how big her yard is?”

  She watched her mother’s face carefully and the blank expression turned slowly to a frown with disappointment as the words sank in. Theresa grabbed her mug of hot chocolate and took a long, slow sip before she set it down again.

  “Well,” she said finally, “I think it goes without saying that I’m disappointed in you.”

  Her voice was calm, but the words stung nonetheless.

  “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  “Yes, I know. I can see that.” Theresa sighed. “Truthfully, though, I thought it would be much worse.”

  Jessica raised her eyebrows. “Really? What did you think I would say?”

  “Oh, I don’t know… That Grandma Ethel caught you in the house alone with a boy or something like that. She’s told me you’re dating some boy from school…”

  “Oh, geez, Mom…” Her face flushed.

  Theresa laughed. “Well, I’m thankful we don’t have to have that conversation,” she said. “But still, I don’t like the fact that you were drinking. When I agreed to let you learn witchcraft, I did it because I knew—I believed—you were responsible enough for it. Becoming a witch is more than simply learning spells, Jessica. It’s a huge responsibility, even more so than what naturally comes with growing up.” A flash of anger crossed her face. “Getting drunk while in the process of witch training—Jessica, do you have any idea of the danger you could have put yourself in? What if a demon had revealed itself to you? Had come after you or one of your friends and your brain was too fuzzy to react?”

  Jessica swallowed and lowered her gaze to the table. She hadn’t thought of that.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again.

  Theresa sighed. “Now, I’m not saying you can’t have your fun. I was your age once. I know that hanging out with friends and blowing off steam is important and even necessary from time to time. But you have to be more careful. More reasonable—smarter.”

  Jessica nodded.

  “This isn’t entirely your fault, though,” Theresa said after a moment. “I think I need to have a talk with my mother as well.”

  She looked up at her, confused. “What do you mean? Grandma’s been great.” She felt a prickle of panic. By no means did she want her parents to criticize Grandma Ethel’s handling of her. The last thing she needed was for them to insist that the old lady start helicopter parenting her.

  “You used a convincing spell for the concert, right?” Theresa asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Those spells aren’t to be learned until after the age of twenty-one, for this very reason. I don’t know what my mother was thinking when she taught them to you.”

  “No…” Jessica shook her head. “Grandma Ethel didn’t teach me any convincing spells. I…I learned on my own…”

  Theresa raised her eyebrows.

  Jessica sighed. “One day, I snuck in and looked through her magic book. I thought convincing spells could come in handy, so I taught it to myself.”

  Her mother simply stared at her for a long time, then shook her head. “I can’t believe you, Jessica. And I mean that in both a good and a bad way. You shouldn’t snoop through your grandmother’s things, you know that. But I get it. I can’t deny that I did my fair share of snooping through her things as a kid too. Anyway, it’s impressive that you were able to teach yourself convincing spells. How have your lessons come along, by the way?”

  For a brief moment, Jessica considered telling her mother all the times she’d used convincing spells before but decided against it.

  One bombshell at a time.

  Suddenly, she noticed the way her mom was smiling at her. “What?”

  “I really think you’re following in your grandma’s footsteps, that’s all. You have so much natural talent. So much aptitude. You’ll make a great witch someday soon.”

  She lowered her gaze and frowned. “I hate everyone telling me that when it’s not true.”

  “Sweetie, what on earth makes you think it isn’t true?”

  “Mom, how can I be such a great witch when I can’t even light a stupid candle with magic?”

  Theresa raised her eyebrows again.

  Jessica nodded. “Yeah, exactly. Grandma Ethel and Chad have given me lessons, and I can’t do it.”

  Her mother stood abruptly from the table with a smirk on her face. She scurried out of the kitchen and left Jessica sitting alone and wondering what she was up to.

  A minute later, she returned with a candlestick in her hand. She set it in the middle of the table.

  “Mom, I’m serious. I really can’t. And I don’t want to disappoint you again.”

  “Oh, hush. You won’t disappoint me. Now, stand up.”

  Reluctantly, she pushed her cup of hot chocolate aside and stood.

  “I’m sure your grandma and Chad are excellent teachers,” Theresa prefaced, “but sometimes, people learn in special ways.”

  “Is that a polite way of saying I’m a slow learner?”

  “No. When it comes to this brand of magic, it simply means that you’re probably like me.”

  “I thought you didn’t do magic?”

  “I don’t—anymore. That doesn’t mean I can’t still remember how it’s done. At least some of it, anyway.” Theresa took a deep breath. “Jessica, I want you to look at the candle carefully. Now, I know my mother and Chad have probably told you to think of warmth and fire—all of that. But I want you to think of cold. Close your eyes and think of a bone-chilling coldness that’s so intense, you would do anything to get away from it. Think of your teeth chattering and your breath fogging in the air. Your fingertips going numb. Your toes tingling and aching. Think of taking a deep breath and feeling icy wind fill your lungs. Imagine yourself shivering from head to toe, locked outside in sub-zero weather with no coat, and no one to let you inside.”

  Jessica let her mother’s voice guide her and thought of the coldest temperatures she’d ever felt.

  “Can you feel that kind of coldness, Jessica?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “All right. Good. Now, I want you to imagine that you finally make it inside and plop down in front of a warm fireplace. Imagine what you want that fire to feel like. Imagine it warming you. Unfreezing you. Thawing away the freeze. Comforting you.”

  “Okay…” she said and imagined the relief a warm fire would bring after
such harshly cold conditions.

  “Open your eyes, Jess.”

  Jessica opened her eyes and saw a flickering flame in front of her. She gasped. “Mom… Did I…did I do that? Or was it you?”

  Theresa smiled. “That was you, baby. You did it.”

  She burst out laughing and smiled from ear to ear. “Oh, my God! I can’t believe I did it.” Overjoyed, she rushed to her mother and threw her arms around her in a hug. “Thank you, Mom!”

  Theresa kissed her forehead. “You’re welcome, baby. I may not ever want to be a part of the magical lifestyle myself, but that doesn’t mean I won’t always try to help you whenever I can. You remember that, all right?”

  “All right.”

  Seconds later, they heard the front door open.

  Her mother blew the candle out quickly. “Your father’s home.” She winked. “Let’s not tell him we’ve practiced magic in the kitchen.”

  Jessica laughed. “Well, do you want to tell me about your vacation now?”

  “Yes!” Theresa said with a laugh and launched into a story about the trip as if that’s what they’d talked about all along. Jessica’s father came into the kitchen with bags of takeout food.

  “Jessica!” he said. “How’s it going, kiddo?”

  “Fine, Dad. Everything’s fine.” She smiled and exchanged a secret glance with her mother.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “So, how have you been, Dad?” Jessica tried her best to look innocent and unsuspicious. To her surprise, a grimace formed on her father’s face.

  Mark sighed in agitation and carried a bag of Chinese takeout to the kitchen table. “Oh, I’m fine, except that I had to fight a damned dog off all the way to the house. It was determined to steal our food and the darn thing nearly made it into the house. I don’t know where all these blasted strays have suddenly come from. If I see it again, I’ll call animal control services because this is getting out of hand.”

  Jessica blinked and her heart quickened in her chest. “A…a d-dog?” she stammered and her mind already assumed the worst.