BeSwitched, Paranormal Romance (3 page)

Chapter 4

“She’s a witch! She’s a witch! She’s a witch!” the crowd chanted.

Idis stood at the accused stand, with Surla at her feet. A fat, balding man, who reminded Surla of the
History teacher, took his seat as the judge.

“All right
, everyone!” his voice boomed. “Just quiet down! We’ll find out soon enough if this lady here is a witch!”

“Just look at her nose!” A man in his twenties, wearing a farmer
’s hat, pointed.

“And that black cat!”
a plump lady, holding a baby, shrieked.

“Yeah!”
The crowd started up again.

“Now, settle down!” The judge stood, waving his arms. “If you settle down, this will be over with all the sooner.”

Instantly the crowd became quiet. The only noise heard was by a lady’s baby, who was now crying.

“Okay, Idis,” he began,
“are you a witch or aren’t you?”

Idis was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her hands shook and beads of sweat started running down her forehead. Surla became very worried for her own life. Whatever they would do to Idis, they were sure to do to the cat. If Idis was going to be burned at the stake, then so would she.

“Well, are you?” The judge pushed for an answer.

“No,” she finally stated firmly.

In response, the crowd became more heated with anger. “Liar! Liar! Liar!”

“All right. All right! I
am
a witch!” she screamed in rage. “And now I’m going to cast a spell on all of you!”

Surla was horrified.
Is she crazy?!
she thought.

The crowd gasped and became silent. Some ran and ducked away. Surla felt she had to do something and fast, so she jumped onto the judge’s lap, purring and rubbing her head against him.
The point is for me to look as sweet and innocent as possible
, she thought,
so I look like I am not a witch’s black cat. Besides, if I don’t agree in using my magic, then Idis’s spell won’t work
.

Idis threw her arms straight up in the air and yelled, “Shoooraca shum! Mewoka reds! Make everyone this instant have bald heads!” Her head fell back in hysterical laughter, but she soon noticed no one was losing hair. She
tried again, but it still didn’t work. Maddened, she stomped her feet. “Bald heads, I said!”

Everyone looked around, feeling their hair
, followed by a roar of laughter.

“It’s too late, Idis.” The judge rubbed his already balding head. “You don’t scare me. Ladies and
gentlemen!” He chuckled. “Oh boy, I guess we came to our conclusion.” He paused to pet Surla. “Good kitty.” Then he looked up again at Idis. “I find this lady not guilty of witchery, but guilty of craziness! So, on behalf of Salem, Massachusetts, I sentence you and your cat to a mad house… or to leave our town. Oh, I guess the kitty can stay if it wants.”

“Cathy… Cathy.” Surla’s mind slowly came back to History class, as she felt a tapping on her arm.

“Oh… um, yeah?” She turned to Todd.

“The teacher has been trying to get your attention.”

“Oh.” She smiled in embarrassment.

“I don’t believe you’ve listened to a word I’ve said so far.” The teacher set down his book. “Cathy, what could you possibly be daydreaming about that is more exciting than History?”

“Actually,” she laughed, “I was thinking about
History.”

“Cathy, pay attention.” He eyed the room, spotting a guy with long hair,
resting his head on the desk. “James!”

“H-huh?” He looked up, his eyes tired.

“No sleeping in my class.”

After that, Surla tried really hard to pay attention or at least pretend to pay attention, but anything that came out of the teacher’s mouth sounded like a bunch of blahs. Blah… blah… blah… blah, and soon the bell rang to go to the next class.

“Hey, Cath.” Todd finished packing his bag. “What were you really daydreaming about?”

“History
.” She half-laughed.

“Oh.” He looked puzzled. “Well, I guess I’ll see you in Chemistry.”

“Okay.” Surla smiled, watching him leave as she pulled out her schedule again.
P.E.
, she read.
I hope I’ll have luck finding it
.

Back at the house, Cathy was becoming very bored taking naps, drinking milk, and watching TV. She felt the need to get out of the house. After all, it was the sunniest day October had seen so far.

Cathy sat on a windowsill in the living room, looking out at the bright afternoon with birds chirping and people bicycling.
Wait… birds!
Cathy saw two blue jays hopping and singing on her driveway. She stared at their feathery, little bodies from a different perspective.
How fun it would be to chase one
, she thought. “Hold on, Cathy!” she told herself. “You are human, not a cat. So, think human!”

She sat there, closing her eyes, imagining she was in Craig’s arms. Feeling better about herself, she opened her yellow eyes again and longingly looked outside. “Okay, so I won’t chase birds. Maybe a roll in the grass would be nice, though.”

With one of her paws, she pulled up the latch, to unlock the window. With the side of her small body, she pushed hard, trying to open it. It didn’t work, so she tried a second time, taking a deep breath before. Again it didn’t budge. Finally, she tried with full force and energy. It worked! The window went ajar a few inches, just enough for her body to slide through and skip a muddy puddle. “Whew! Third time’s a charm.” She pranced around the yard and rolled in the grass. “Ooh, the things we humans take for granted.” The soft, cool grass tickled her back.

“Grrrr…
grrr,” she heard from the next yard over. Cathy remembered the black Labrador, Sadie, from next door. Cathy looked over her shoulder cautiously, and to her relief her eyes followed a silver chain hooking from its neck to a tree. Once again, she rolled in the grass.

“Grrrrowl! Grrrowl!” Sadie kept on while the chink of the metal leash was heard.

Don’t worry about her
, she comforted herself.
Just keep rolling
.

“Rruff! Rruff!” Growls turned into barking and her
body leaped, even though he was restrained.

“Rrrruff!” The sound of metal
snapping like a twig, startled Cathy.

Cathy turned in horror as she saw the slobbery beast darting for her, the broken chain sliding on the ground.

“AAAAAH!” she screamed and took off to the side yard, where she ran between some garbage cans full of aluminum. Sadie didn’t care; she ran straight through, causing cans to fly in all directions.

Cathy turned, while still running, noticing the bear-like claws coming closer to her tail. She felt as if her heart was going to leap right out of her furry chest.
This was the dog I used to play with after school!

She soon made it to the other side of the backyard, where a tall wooden fence blocked her from the front yard.
This is not good
, she thought.
Not good at all
. She then leaped as high as she could. Her front paws barely touched the top of the fence and without thinking, nails jutted out, hooking into the wood, preventing her from falling. Her back paws scratched, trying to push the rest of her body up.

Sadie appeared under her in a flash, showing off her sharp teeth. Cathy felt weaker, as if the blood was being drained from her legs. But when Sadie jumped, biting for Cathy’s tail, enough adrenaline rushed through her to make it back over to the front yard.

She had to sit and catch her breath. The aroma of roses her mother planted last spring was a nice, therapeutic scent.
I’ve got to make it back inside
, she told herself. The window left open was about ten feet away. She slinked her body like a furry snake in the grass. She was almost there, when the sound of Sadie tromping through the cans, caused Cathy to sit still in fear. Her eyes were stuck on the entrance from the side yard, expecting the dog to come out any second—and she did! Her pink nose lowered to the ground, sniffing intensely around some bushes.

Cathy looked up. She could see the opening in the window. If she was quick enough, she could make it. Sadie made it over to the peach tree and bit into one of the many fruits fallen to the ground.
I could make my move now
, Cathy thought.
Oh no!
The Labrador’s black, beady eyes made eye contact with hers and the side of her lip curled with a growl.

“
AAAAH!” Cathy scrambled through the muddy puddle and made it up through the window. She was safe. Wet dirty paw prints decorated the windowsill as Sadie whimpered and scratched beneath her, outside. “Down, doggy,” Cathy spoke, happy and unafraid.

“What are you doing?” an old man came from the house next door, speaking to Sadie in a displeased tone. He walked over to his dog and lifted the broken chain hooked to its neck. “Bad dog! This is the second time you’ve done this to our neighbors.” He waved a finger in disapproval.

Cathy was laughing inside.

Sadie craned her neck, looking back at the black cat, while being pulled away home; the black cat who could speak just like that Cathy-girl.

Chapter 5

Surla sat between rows of lockers. The smell of too much perfume and hair spray made her feel like gagging. She had found her way to P.E. and the oversized T-shirt and sweat pants, left in Cathy’s locker, felt very comfortable.

Chrissy was pulling her short hair into a small ponytail in front a huge mirror hanging on a wall. Her eyes glanced at Surla’s, then looked again and smiled.
Chrissy is way more nice than her friends
.

“Girls! Let’s go! Time to hit the tennis courts!” a manly
-looking lady with a whistle hanging around her neck, yelled.

As Surla headed out the door, Chrissy came alongside her. “Hi
, Cathy,” she said.

“Hi,” she said back, with slight amazement that Chrissy would regard her.

“You look really nice today. You should dress like this every day.”

“Thanks,” Surla responded as they headed to the courts, where all the students, guys and girls
, were asked to sit and form a large circle. The two teachers, Mrs. Brown (the manly lady) and Mr. Townshend (the manly man), stood in the center.

“Okay, everyone! Today is the first day of practicing tennis,” Mrs. Brown began. “Tennis is a pretty simple game, but it takes a lot of sweat and stamina. Although it may seem so, it’s not easy to run back and forth from one side of your court to the other trying to hit a little ball.”

Mr. Townshend interjected, “Yes, and in a few minutes we will discuss the rules of the game, but first we need everyone to partner up with someone. So, hurry up and get with someone!”

Surla looked around at all of the students finding their friends
. Feeling a bit uneasy, she looked at Chrissy, who she noticed didn’t have a partner also.

“We’ll be partners, I guess.” Chrissy stretched her arms above her head.

Thank goodness
. Surla smiled.

“All right, I see everyone has found their teammate, so sit close to each other so we know for sure who you’re with,” Mrs. Brown ordered. “And we’ll go around and pick the people you’re up against. And it looks like it will be an even boys against girls.”

Of course all the boys were happy with that conclusion, already eyeing the girls they wanted to compete with. Surla and Chrissy listened to Mr. Townshend calling off names of who would be against who. “Steve Campbell and Byron Thompson are with Sophia Sanchez and Crystal Bradley.” The teams stood up and grabbed rackets and a ball from a sports rack.

“Mr. To
wnshend!” Sophia whined with a cute accent. “Why did you put me with Byron? You know we don’t get along at all.”

“Well then, this will also be a lesson in learning to get along with others who are annoying,” he said with a laugh, teasing Byron, then continued on, “Nick Costa and Patrick McNeal are up against Suzy Peters and Sara Cronopolous.”

Sara ran over to Nick and gave him a high five. “All right! We’re on the same court.” Then they headed out with their equipment.

The pairing up of teams went on and on until Surla became anxious. “The only guys left,” Chrissy whispered, “are Jason Renshaw with Paul Hadlock and Travis Simmons with Craig Nelson.”

“Craig Nelson!” Surla said more excitedly than she meant to.

“Yeah, why?” Chrissy laughed. “Do you like him or something?”

Surla felt stupid for sounding so eager. “No, I don’t.” She then thought she really shouldn’t lie about Cathy. “Well, yes, I guess I do.”

“Really?!” Her big eyes became bigger with interest. “You know,” she lowered her voice more, “Tiffany has had the hugest crush on him for two years in a row. Can you believe it? But don’t tell anyone I told you.”

“Wow… okay.” Surla thought about how the situation had been the same with Cathy.

“I know. Personally I don’t like any of the guys here. I guess growing up with them all made it unexciting for me, but maybe if some really good-looking new guy came to school….” Chrissy stopped and looked at the four guys sitting across from them. “Cathy,” she said in an enthusiastic whisper, “Craig is staring straight at you!”

“Really?” Surla casually glanced over to him and their eyes met instantly.
This could be my first opportunity to flirt
. Surla smiled as cute as possible, tilting her head. Craig smiled back and gave her a wink.

“Oh my gosh. Did you just see what he did? He winked at you!” Chrissy looked again to Craig and
then back to Surla. “I won’t tell Tiffany about this one.”

“Tiffany?” Surla turned to her. “Why? What can she do about it?”

“Oh, trust me, she can do a lot.” Her eyebrows raised. “I’ve known her practically my whole life.”

“You have known her almost all your life?” Surla felt sorry for her.

“Oh yeah. She just lives a few houses down from me.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Why do you hang out with her?”

“Why do I hang out with her?” she said as if the answer was obvious. “Like I said, I’ve known her practically all of my sixteen years. We used to play Barbie when I was just four. She’s my friend, so why wouldn’t I want to hang out with her.”

At that comment, Surla decided not to say another word about the topic, seeing as how it would offend Chrissy.

The teacher announced, “Jason Renshaw and Paul Hadlock go with Alana Gustafson and Taniesha Collins.”

Surla knew what that meant.
Yes! I’m with Craig. What a great coincidence
.

“The rest of you know who you’re with,” Mr. Townshend said as they stood and picked out rackets. Surla reached for the green, fuzzy ball, which appealed to her cat
ty interests.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Craig asked Surla as they all headed to a court.

Oh my gosh
, Surla thought in amazement,
he doesn’t recognize Cathy!

“This is Caaathy. Can you say Cathy?” Chrissy teased.

“Cathy?” he said again. “No way! Um, what’s her last name? Philbert!”

“No, it’s Phillips,” Surla said.

“Oh, wow.” His blue eyes were glued to staring at her for a few more seconds. “Hey, um, I’m sorry I didn’t give you a ride home last Friday. My car was pretty full.”

“Don’t worry about it.” They went to their separate sides of the court. “I wouldn’t want to be in the same car as Tiffany anyway.”

Craig’s mouth dropped open. “Man, Cathy, you’ve changed.”

“I know.” She smiled. “Isn’t it great?”

The two P.E. teachers quickly went through the rules of tennis. Then all the students proceeded to play, but Surla kept throwing the ball in the air and catching it over and over.

“Okay,” Travis, Craig’s partner, spoke up
, “you can serve it to us now, Cathy.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Surla hit the ball nicely across to the other side of the court.

For the first few games Craig and Travis won, but as the period went on Cathy and Chrissy were becoming better players, winning the last two.

The bell rang as Surla placed her and Chrissy’s rackets away. Before entering separate locker rooms, Craig said to them, “You two are tough, for girls.”

“You’re pretty tough, too, Craig—for being a guy,” Chrissy remarked.

“Well, I’ll see you later.” He started to walk. “Oh, and you too
, Chrissy!”

Chemistry went by too slow for Surla. Even though Todd sat next her, they weren’t allowed to talk. Mrs.
Spencer talks way too fast!
Surla grumbled in her head.
And why does she have to use so many words I cannot understand
?
All my life I’ve used magic. I don’t want to start learning science.
She tapped her sharp, red nails on the desk lightly.

“All right, class,” the very serious-faced teacher said, “your homework will be on page
five-fifty-seven in the textbook. It’s a review on everything we have learned in the last two weeks.” She slid her wire-rimmed glasses to the top her head. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

The bell rang. People rushed out of their seats, anticipating going home.

“You looked like you were having a tough time understanding.” Todd walked out of the classroom shoulder-to-shoulder with Surla.

“How could you tell?” she said.

“It was that twisted look you had on your face.” He chuckled.

“Thanks.” Surla smiled. “But it’s not my fault. Mrs. Spencer is hard to understand. And I do not want Cath…, I mean,
my
grade to drop.”

“Well
, hey, Chemistry is one of my easy subjects. Maybe…,” he continued as he scratched the back of his neck shyly, “I could, like, tutor you or something.”

“Yeah, maybe. I’ll think about it.” Surla had to ask Cathy’s mom if it would be all right if he came over.

“Okay.” He headed toward his locker. “Don’t take too long to decide.”

Surla knew by instinct, the route to reaching Cathy’s house again.
First, I have to go by Revere Park
. She smiled at how good the day had gone so far.