So Mote it Be (12 page)

“Hey,” she said as she sat down, testing the waters to see if Tara was still angry at her.

“Hey,” said Tara. She didn't sound angry, but she didn't sound exactly friendly, either.

“I see you've got your own poster,” Tara said casually.

“Yeah,” said Kate. “I didn't know anything about it. Scott surprised me this morning.”

“You know, the football team candidate almost always wins,” Tara said. “Looks like you're the odds-on favorite now.”

“I don't know,” Kate said, feeling more and more uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking. “It's early. There will be a lot of other candidates people will vote for.”

“We'll see,” Tara answered. “But the way things are going for you, I wouldn't be surprised.”

Kate knew that Tara's last comment was a dig at her for getting a good grade on the midterm, but she ignored it. She was already on really thin ice with her friends, and one false step would send her crashing through. All she could do was wait and hope that maybe the spell she and Annie had done would kick in soon. If it didn't, she wasn't sure what she would do.

Despite her initial hope that things would get better, the day was difficult for her. Everywhere she went she saw her picture smiling down from those awful posters. And it seemed that every boy in the school was wearing her button. Even Mr. Draper and Mr. Niemark, her math teacher, had them on. Only the girls wore Terri's buttons. It was as if the school had divided into two enemy camps, with the boys on Kate's side and the girls on Terri's.

At lunch Kate sat with Scott and his football team buddies, but all they talked about was her campaign for Valentine's Day queen. She pretended to listen, but really she was thinking about Tara, Sherrie, and Jessica, sitting in one part of the cafeteria, and Annie, sitting alone in another. For different reasons, she wanted to be sitting at the other tables, and she felt trapped in the middle. Even the other players' girlfriends had stopped sitting at the football table, but their boyfriends didn't seem to notice.

What's happening here?
Kate thought as she ate her lunch without tasting any of it.
Why aren't things going back to normal?
Then she had a horrible thought. Maybe this
was
normal now. Maybe the magic had changed things permanently. Maybe it was the price she had to pay for getting what she wanted.

When school was over, Kate raced home as quickly as she could. Up in her room, she picked up the book of spells and looked at it. “You've caused enough trouble,” she said. “Tomorrow you go back to the library, where you belong.”

She placed the book in her backpack and went downstairs to help her mother finish making dinner. She was determined to make her life as normal as she possibly could, and that meant staying far away from magic and witchcraft.

For the first time in a long while, both of her parents were home for dinner, and Kate was able to forget about her problems as she busied herself telling them about the upcoming basketball game. She left out the part about being nominated for Valentine's Day queen, and the part about going to the dance with Scott, because she knew they'd be excited for her and she didn't want to have to talk about it. She wanted to feel ordinary, not special. She'd had enough attention for a while. It felt good just to wash dishes, do some homework, and go to bed.

The next morning she had no idea what to expect when she got to school. She half expected to find that someone had erected a statue of her on the school lawn or that the entire school had been renamed after her. Another part of her hoped that, somehow, everything would have gone back to the way it was before she'd ever done a spell.

But the posters of her were still up. Only now there were posters of several other candidates as well. A picture of Terri Fletcher hung a few feet away from one of Kate, and two or three other faces peered out from the walls.

As Kate walked through the halls looking at all the posters, she noticed that while a lot of the boys were still wearing her buttons, some of them were sporting buttons with other faces on them. Fewer of them said hello to her or smiled at her, and she didn't get quite as many hostile looks from other girls as she had been getting.
Maybe it's working
, she thought happily.

Annie was waiting for her again at her locker, and Kate felt a stab of guilt as she found herself hoping that Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara wouldn't see them talking. She still wasn't sure how she was going to handle her friendship with Annie. She really liked her, but she had to admit that Annie was something of a liability when it came to maintaining a reputation.

“Looks like you have some competition,” Annie said.

“I know,” Kate said. “What do you think it means?”

“Either that our ritual is working or that people
really
don't want you to win,” Annie said.

“That makes me feel so much better,” Kate said. “Thanks.”

“I told you it would take time to know for sure,” Annie responded.

“Yeah, well, in the meantime I'm taking this back to the library,” Kate said, holding up the spell book. “I want it as far away from me as possible. Want to come with me?”

She and Annie walked to the library. Inside, Kate put the book into the return slot at the desk and let out a sigh of relief as she heard it hit the bottom of the collection box with a dull thud.

“At least that's out of my life,” she said as she and Annie left.

As they walked to chemistry, Kate tried not to notice the hostile glances she received from some of the people passing by. As a result, it wasn't until she and Annie were halfway up the stairs that she saw none other than Terri Fletcher coming toward them going the other way. Kate thought about turning around and going back down the stairs before Terri saw her, but it was too late. There were too many people coming up behind her.

As Terri passed Annie halfway down the stairs, she gave a sudden lurch and tumbled forward. Kate watched in horror as Terri's mouth opened in a scream and her hands went out in front of her in an attempt at grabbing the handrail. But it was too late, and a moment later Terri was falling. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion, with Kate frozen and unable to do anything but watch as Terri appeared to fly by her and land on the floor in a heap. When Kate finally came to her senses, her ears were filled with the sound of screaming.

“My ankle!” Terri cried. She was lying at the bottom of the stairs, her books and papers scattered around her like leaves. She was holding her leg, and her face was contorted in pain.

“My ankle!” she wailed again. “I think it's broken.”

Several students had rushed over when they heard Terri screaming, and she was surrounded by a growing group. As they bent over her, trying to see what they could do, Terri looked up at Annie and pointed a finger at her.

“She pushed me,” Terri said. “I felt her push me.”

Like Kate, Annie had stopped when she heard Terri scream. Now she was standing on the stairs looking down at Terri and the others.

“I felt someone push me when I walked by,” Terri said. “I know she did it.”

At that moment, Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara came around the corner. They saw Terri on the floor, cradling her leg. They saw Kate and Annie standing on the stairs. Kate opened her mouth to say something, but she knew it was too late. She could tell by the looks on their faces that they thought Annie had pushed Terri.

“It was an accident,” Kate said helplessly. “She must have slipped.”

“No,” Terri shouted. “I know she pushed me.”

Kate ran up the stairs to where Annie was standing, unmoving. “I think we should get out of here,” she whispered, and when Annie didn't move she grabbed her arm. “Come on.”

Annie allowed herself to be pulled up the stairs, away from Terri and everyone who was coming to see what had happened.

“I didn't push her,” Annie said, leaning against the hallway wall.

“I know that,” said Kate. “But no one is going to believe you.” She pounded her fist against a nearby locker. “Why is this happening?” she said. “Every time something even remotely good happens, something terrible has to happen right afterward. I don't understand it.”

“I think you started something that's gotten out of control,” Annie said. “I think the spells you did are magnifying somehow, and the ritual we did to stop them just made things worse.”

“But how do we stop it?” Kate asked. “If this keeps up, they'll be tying us to stakes on the front lawn.”

“I think we need help,” Annie said.

“Help?” said Kate. “Who is there to help us?”

“Well, you came to me because my name was on the list of people who'd checked out the book,” Annie said. “I know I wasn't the first one to check it out. Do you remember if there were any other names?”

Kate thought. “I just noticed yours because you'd checked it out so often.”

“We have to find out who else has taken that book out,” Annie said. “Let's go to the library.”

They couldn't get to the library by going back down the stairs. They could tell there was still a lot of commotion going on, and it sounded as if Terri was still crying. They had to take the long way around. Fortunately, no one who saw them seemed to connect them with what was going on.

“Probably they're all still standing around Terri, listening to her blame you,” Kate said.

“At least they're out of our way,” Annie responded. “Let's just find the book and get out of here. I hope they've reshelved it already so we don't have to ask for it.”

They were in luck. The book had been put back on the shelf. Annie opened it and took out the circulation card.

“There's a signature here,” she said, “but I can't read it. It's been crossed out.”

“Someone didn't want anyone to know they were reading this,” Kate said. “I can't say I blame them.”

Annie took a piece of paper out of her notebook and laid it across the circulation card. Then she took her pencil and lightly rubbed it over the paper.

“What are you doing?” Kate asked.

“It's a trick I read about in a mystery novel,” Annie said. “You rub the pencil over the paper and the impression of what's underneath shows up.”

“How very Nancy Drew,” Kate said. She watched as Annie rubbed, and soon she saw a name emerging through the pencil marks. “Can you read it?” she asked.

Annie held up the paper and looked at it. “It looks like Cocker or Copper or something like that,” she said.

Kate thought for a minute. “Could it be Cooper?” she asked.

Annie squinted at the paper. “Maybe,” she said. “The writing is really messy. But yeah, it could be Cooper. Cooper Riv-something.”

“Rivers,” said Kate dully. “Cooper Rivers.”

“You don't sound too thrilled,” Annie said, putting the card back in the book.

“Cooper Rivers is one of the most antisocial people at Beecher Falls High School,” Kate said unenthusiastically. “Her mother teaches in the elementary school. We were in fourth grade together.”

“And she pushed you down on the playground or made you eat chalk or what?” Annie asked. “You make her sound like a juvenile delinquent.”

“No,” said Kate. “She's just kind of strange. You'd probably know her if you saw her. Thin. Short hair that changes color about once a month. Currently pink, I believe. Wears Hello Kitty T-shirts and vinyl pants. Hangs out with the rock-and-roll crowd that smokes behind the building.”

“Oh, her,” said Annie. “I've seen her around.”

“Then you know what I mean when I say she isn't exactly the most approachable girl in school,” Kate said.

“I still think we need to try,” Annie said. “I read somewhere that magic grows more powerful when more people are doing it. Something about raising energy and all of that. Maybe Cooper's the thing we need to fix this once and for all. Besides, strange is in the eye of the beholder, remember?”

Kate knew Annie was right. They had to try something. They hadn't been able to reverse her spells by working together. Maybe they did need someone else. But Cooper Rivers? If Kate and Annie were unlikely candidates for trying out witchcraft, Cooper was even more of a long shot. Still, they were running out of options. And Annie was right about not making assumptions. Maybe Cooper wasn't all that bad.

“All right,” Kate said. “But you do all the talking.”

“Fine,” said Annie. “So, where do we find this Cooper Rivers?”

“My guess is one of the music rooms,” Kate said. “She's really into playing the guitar.”

The school's music rooms were in the basement. Kate and Annie walked down the row of doors trying to peer through the small panes of glass that served as windows to see who was inside. Finally, near the end of the row, Kate stopped.

“That's her,” she said.

Annie looked in and saw a girl sitting on a stool, a guitar in her hands. A pair of headphones sat on her head, pushing down her hair, which was indeed dyed bright pink. She was mouthing some words, and her eyes were closed.

“Here goes nothing,” Annie said, and pushed open the door.

CHAPTER 9