Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 3 (3 page)

As soon as she could, Aradia
asked her father this but Ross shook his head and offered no
explanation. At least no other than, "If your sisters want to tell
you than they will but until then..." he shrugged and went
downstairs.

Aradia looked back at Melina
who flicked her off, and then slammed the door!

Sisters
, Aradia thought,
yeah right.

The next month was a trial
in itself for Aradia. Marietta was too young to develop an attitude
and therefore was easily likable. She got along with everyone
especially Aradia.

Melina, however, was a
completely different story. She was rude, loud, obnoxious, crude,
and vulgar. She cut classes, smoked pot, drank liquor, stole money,
hung out with shady people from school including Bane's gang, and
often bullied Aradia.

Instead of accepting her
behavior, Aradia's parents took action. Ross most of all was the
one who changed things dramatically. When he found out Melina was
cutting school he actually arranged it so cops would go out, find
her, bring her back, and sit with her in every class. Ross would
search Melina's room every single day in order to find drugs. As
for stealing money, Ross and Liza hid their wallets in different
hiding places all over the house and changed them every single day.
It also prompted Ross to register everything in the house with the
police so if any of it were pawned from here to the next state the
police would be notified. Unfortunately, Melina found out about
this strategy the hard way when she tried to pawn some of Liza's
jewelry and spent the night in jail.

As for the hanging out with
Bane and his gang, Ross had arranged it so that whenever Melina
left the house a cop car would follow her everywhere. Therefore,
once Bane's crew started seeing cop cars following her they stopped
hanging with Melina. As for the bullying, unfortunately, there was
not much Ross could do about that. In all honesty, Aradia did not
care what Melina said or did for she had other things to worry
about.

Ironically, it was because
Ross had prevented Melina from skipping school when Aradia's worlds
began to collide. It had started during her history class, and
Aradia was sitting in the back with Dax as she usually did. Dax was
massaging her shoulders while Aradia tried hard to suppress her
groans of pleasure. Unfortunately, Roy was also in their class and
glaring at the two. Most unfortunate of all, was the fact that
Tristan was there as well and sitting right next to Roy! Once he
noticed Roy's bad attitude, and followed his angry gaze Tristan
began to chuckle with understanding.

As soon as Roy heard him, he
whipped around, saying, "What? What's so funny?"

"You know Roy," Tristan
began, "If you really want to win over Aradia then you have got to
stop being such a nice guy."

"What do you mean?" Roy
snapped.

"What I mean is try applying
some dirty tactics and stop waiting around," Tristan
explained.

"Dirty tactics," Roy
repeated, "What are those?"

Tristan sighed, and muttered
under his breath, "No wonder in spite of his womanizing skills your
older brother Al still doesn't have a serious girlfriend. You are
all hopeless."

He then turned and leaned in
closer to Roy. "Dirty tactics like provoking Dax into a fight and
making him look a fool in front of Aradia."

"Or," Tristan added in a
dramatic lower whisper. "My personal favorite: making Aradia
jealous by showing interest in other women."

Roy's mouth dropped open.
"What?"

"It's like this Roy,"
Tristan explained while straightening up in his seat. "No woman
wants a man more unless she is going to lose him."

Roy shook his head in
disbelief. "Forget it Tristan. I am not like that."

Tristan groaned while Roy
added, "And besides where am I going to find a woman who is
interested in me? Unlike you, Dax, and my brothers I am not much of
a ladies' man. So how the hell can I possibly snag someone that
will make Aradia want to compete for my affections? I mean it's not
like a beautiful woman who finds me attractive is going walk right
through the door!"

At that, very moment there
was a knock, which stopped the history teacher's lecture. Roy
strained his neck to see who it was, Tristan's advice still on his
mind. However, as the teacher answered the door the person they saw
standing there was the vice principal who looked like a female
version of Uncle Fester of the Addams family. Roy's face fell while
Tristan snickered.

The vice principal then
handed the history teacher a note who turned around and said,
"Attention class, we have a new student in our class
today."

The vice principal then
stepped aside, the teacher motioned for the student to come
forward, and in walked Melina! Today, she was wearing her usual
punk rocker boots and denim mini skirt even though it was freezing
outside. However, what was different about her appearance today was
she was wearing a hot pink satin puffy jacket rather than a brown
one, and large gold hoop earrings.

As soon as Dax noticed the
earrings glittering in the classroom light, he leaned in closer,
and whispered into Aradia's ear. "Aren't those earrings
yours?"

Aradia just clenched her
fists in response.

Roy's reaction to Melina,
however, was very different. His jaw dropped open, and his eyes
grew wide as dinner plates as he stared at her in utter shock.
Tristan chuckled as soon as he noticed this. Melina noticed as
well, but instead of chuckling, she sauntered next to the empty
desk right beside Roy.

She then seductively crossed
her legs, smiled at him, and said, "Hey."

Roy could not even reply. He
just continued to stare at Melina who looked back at him, smiling
sexily, and batting her eyelashes. Tristan looked back at Aradia
who had just now noticed the interaction between Roy and Melina and
started stiffening in her seat.

Tristan snickered as he
turned around, murmuring to himself, "Now this is getting
good."

Aradia waved to Melina at
lunch and motioned for her to sit with her and her friends. Melina
still walked right past them with her nose up in the air. However,
Melina soon discovered that Bane's group was not allowing her to
sit with them either. After recovering from the shock, Melina drew
herself up defensively, stalked off to an empty table, and began to
eat her lunch in anger.

"I can't believe you live
with that," Everrett said as he flicked his thumb in Melina's
direction.

"Me neither," Aradia said
before biting into her sandwich.

Suddenly, Roy appeared and
sat down at their table. Aradia greeted him happily, not mentioning
his earlier behavior. However, by greeting he Aradia had
unintentionally drawn Melina's attention to Roy once again. As soon
as she recognized him, she stood up, picked up her lunch tray, and
strolled over to them. Roy was laughing, and just about to bite
into his apple when Melina showed up and stood behind
Aradia.

"Hey," she said.

Roy's mouth froze in mid-air
inches away from the apple. He then put it back on to the tray to
stare at Melina dreamily.

No spoke until Melina asked,
"Want to sit with me?"

Roy did not even hesitate.
He grabbed his things and followed Melina to her table while the
others just stared.

Aradia kept turning her head
forwards and backwards. "What just happened?"

"I believe Aradia," said
Tristan showing up at her side with a flourish and smiling
wickedly. "That what has happened is you now have competition for
Roy's affections."

"Yeah right," Aradia
scoffed.

She then heard Roy's
full-throated laughter from behind her. She turned once again to
see Melina laid a hand on Roy's cheek, smiling
seductively.

"Yeah," Tristan said
triumphantly, "Right."

As much as Aradia wanted to
confront Melina about Roy, she could not because tonight was Friday
night, which meant Club Tolerance was supposed to be open. She had
called Everrett, and worked it out with him that he could open the
club early. Aradia had also convinced Al and D, not only to bring
the food in early, but to keep an eye on Everrett as well. However,
even after working all these things out Aradia knew she still had
to show up as soon as possible. So after finishing her dinner, then
her homework, and hiding it under her bed so Melina would not steal
it Aradia got ready.

"I wish Rhonda was here,"
Aradia muttered as she frantically looked through her
clothes.

Aradia's three biggest
character flaws were her bad grades, her horrible cooking, and her
lack of good fashion sense. The lack of good fashion sense thing
was what plagued her the most. Therefore, for very special
occasions her friends or her mother often helped her pick out
things to wear. Unfortunately, there were times such as now when
neither was available to help her.

After looking through her
clothes dozens of times, Aradia was hit by a sudden wave of
inspiration or perhaps desperation, as she thought about it
further. Nevertheless, she dashed out of her room and knocked on
Melina's door. Marietta, however, was the one who
answered.

"What?" she asked
Aradia.

"Is your sister here?"
Aradia asked Marietta who shook her head.

"Damn!" Aradia swore but
then remembered Marietta's age and corrected herself. "I mean darn
it."

Marietta rolled her eyes.
"Honey, I'm from Brooklyn I have heard worse things, and to be
perfectly honest even though I am nine I think I know more swear
words than you do."

Aradia laughed as she
started towards her room.

Suddenly, she stopped,
turned, and asked, "Hey Mattie, how would you like to help me pick
out my clothes for tonight?"

"Sure," said Marietta
running into Aradia's room and plopping down onto the bed. "But
don't call me Mattie."

"So did your sister tell you
where she was going?" Aradia asked as she pulled out a pair of
black jeggings (leggings that look like jeans) to try
on.

Marietta shook her head and
said, "Something about a date."

"Hmm well at least your
sister is adapting nicely to Salem," Aradia said
sarcastically.

Marietta shrugged and said,
"I have to say that this is the happiest I have ever seen
her."

Aradia stopped, and looked
over to Marietta.

"What do you mean?" Aradia
asked.

Marietta shrugged again.
"Before we came here we stayed with two other foster homes. The
people there were either mean or didn't have a clue, and kept
treating us like we were babies who were too stupid to know any
better."

Marietta pouted. "And when
we lived with our parents..."

She shuddered at the
memory.

Aradia said nothing.
Instead, she crouched down to look Marietta in the eye.

"And us? How do we treat
you?"

Marietta sighed and said,
"Like we're...normal."

Aradia smiled until Marietta
added, "But they all did in the beginning. It's only after a while
that things change."

"Yeah well," Aradia said
straightening up, "We will try hard not to disappoint
you."

Marietta raised an eyebrow
before pointing out, "Melina won't make it easy you know. She says
the only way to see if a person is the real deal is to give them
hell that's when they show what they are really about!"

Aradia shrugged and said,
"Well I hate to break it to both you and your sister
but..."

She trailed off as she
turned to look at herself in the mirror.

"Me and my family have dealt
with much more difficult things," Aradia finished as she ran her
fingers through her hair.

Marietta laughed and asked,
"Are you sure?"

Aradia thought back to
everything she had experienced since she had moved to Salem. She
thought about defeating Derek, finding out about being the last of
her kind, being kidnapped by Henry McAlester, and now being faced
with the ultimatum of choosing a consort or igniting a
war.

"Yeah," Aradia said smiling,
"I'm sure."

"Now..." She said while
turning to face Marietta. "What do you think of this
top?"

Aradia expected that by
eight p.m, the club would be jumping, and she was not disappointed.
The moment she walked down the staircase and into the club, she saw
dozens of people, both hidden and human, dancing, or chattering
lively. The different colored show lights were flashing all around
the ceiling, and the smoke machines were puffing small amounts of
grey smoke on to the floor. The bubble machines were floating
various ultraviolet see-through soapy spheres above the moving
crowds, and Only Girl in the World by Rihanna blared through the
speakers. Everrett was smiling as he spun his turntables on the
stage. Al and D had laid out food along the bar as Calvin was
serving drinks, and cussing out people who tried to hurry him. This
prompted Aradia to check out exactly what he was serving. She
pushed, and shoved through the dancing crowd. Occasionally, she
paused to answer the various greetings from the
partygoers.