BeSwitched, Paranormal Romance (5 page)

Surla noticed
Chrissy’s brown hair actually had some red highlights in it. She wore a turtleneck, like Surla today, but it was black. All three of them together made an incredible sight.

HONK! HONK! A red sports car pulled up alongside the girls. Tiffany smiled brightly as the dri
ver’s window rolled down. Craig’s blond hair was blowing back with the breeze. “Hi, Tiffany. Hi, Lisa. Hi, Chrissy.”

No ‘hi’ for me!
Surla stopped in her tracks.

“Hey, Craig.” Tiffany walked over to him with books in her hands. “I’ll just throw my stuff in the back.” She waved over her two friends.

“
Actually,” Craig stopped her, “I think I owe someone else a ride.” His eyes looked to Surla and she smiled.

Tiffany glanced around. “Who?” she said as if she was oblivious to Surla’s presence.

“Cathy.” He called her over with the wave of a hand.

“Her?” the snob said in disgust. “Well, fine. That’s all right, because I’m getting my license soon and won’t need a ride home anymore.” She turned around sharply, pulling Lisa’s arm. “Come on.”

Surla waved bye to Chrissy as she entered the sports car; but, in response the girl just shook her head, then kept walking with her friends.

Craig took off
, speeding as usual. “So, where do you live?”

Surla had to jog her memory for the street names. “Oh yeah,
Spaulding Way off of B Street.”

He laughed. “Did you almost forget where you live?”

“No… it’s just, never mind.” She had no good answer.

“You always walk home?” he asked like he already knew the answer.

“Yes.” Surla looked in the rear view mirror at the three girls turning into dots, then disappearing in the distance. “Tiffany looked pretty mad back there.”

“She’ll live. Sometimes she can really get on my nerves.” He turned on some rock music.

“She gets on my nerves all the time,” Surla said as he turned a corner almost reaching Cathy’s house. “It’s that house with the peach tree in front.”

He
came to a stop in front of the small home. Before she opened her passenger-side door, Craig’s warm hand reached for hers. “Wait,” he said and she turned in her seat, seeing him smile softly, “if ever you need a ride, just ask. The weather is getting colder and colder.” His hand still held hers. “Oh, and I guess you can just give me your number when you feel comfortable.”

She would have given it to him right then if she knew what he was talking about. “Thanks a lot, Craig.” Surla opened the door and he gave her hand a squeeze before letting go.

As soon as she entered the house, Cathy was at her feet all bright eyed. “What just happened? I saw you exit Craig’s car!”

“Cathy, Cathy, Cathy, Cathy.” She picked her up and cradled her in her arms. “First
, I want to know how you knew that?!”

“If you must know, I am stuck here all day by myself watching talk shows, napping, or perched on a windowsill watching birds.” She was slightly embarrassed of her quick confession. “Anyway, while looking out the window, I saw you drive up in his car
—Craig’s car! So, pleeeeease hurry and tell me what happened.”

“Okay,” she said, self-satisfied. “I’ve been hooking him by my cat-like ways.”

“Tiffany, this is not fair,” Chrissy said, still walking home with her and Lisa. “What has she ever done to you?”

“Look, Chrissy,” Tiffany said with much conceit, “Cathy is trying to ruin my reputation… and I’m not going to let her get away with it.”

“No
, she’s not,” Chrissy defended. “She’s just finally coming out of her shell.”

“All these years, I have been the girl who guys go crazy for. I am not going to let some geek-gone-gorgeous steal that away from me,” she said matter-of-factly. “She deserves whatever’s coming to her.”

“My phone number is 555-9145.” Cathy showed Surla the buttons on the cordless phone. “Okay, the phone is to talk to people that are far away. You talk into it and they talk back through their phone. You can hear each other.”

“Ooh! I saw your mom using it last night and was wondering what she was doing.” Surla laughed.

“I can’t believe Idis didn’t have one of these.”

“Well, she had something like this. She got in contact with other witches through a mirror.”

“Now, that sounds a little too much like a fairy-tale to me.”

“A little too fairy-tale-like, huh.” Surla tilted her head. “How would you describe our situation?”

“Okay, you win.”

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” Idis contorted her body into the sexiest move she could make, in front of a full length mirror. Black iron wound around it in a gothic manner. “Well?!” she yelled at it for an answer.

“I’m sorry, Idis,” the congenial deep voice said, “I’m not in the mood to play Snow White.” The glass swirled with changing colors.

“Oh well,” the witch grunted
, “what I really wanted to do was call up my
sister, Gretchen.”

“Gretchen?” he repeated. “All right.” Sounds of dialing started. Then slowly coming out of a blue fog, a tall beautiful woman in a bikini appeared with a seascape rolling behind her.

“Yes, Vladimirror?” the woman purred.

“Who are
you
?” Idis’s neck protruded like an angry chicken. “You sure aren’t my sister!”

“Oops,” the mirror chuckled in embarrassment. “I must have hit redial.”

“Well, Vladimirror, I see what you do in your spare time. Now get Gretchen!”

“Okay,
okay.” There was a series of beeps, like more dialing, and this time out of a green fog, a short, frumpy witch appeared. She wore layers of old clothing and her red hair was stringy. “Well I’ll be a good witch!” She cackled sarcastically. “You haven’t called me up in ice ages, Idis! You must have some crisis going on.”

“Gretchen, I ne
ed you to do a favor for me,” Idis choked out.

“A favor from
me
?” She cackled some more. “What’s wrong? Did your cat finally run away?”

“Yes!” she yelled, stomping her boot’s sole on the floor.

“Well, what do you want from me…? To build a fire, to clip your toenails?” Gretchen paused, then continued, “Oh, that’s not possible. Your toenails are probably harder than a tooth!”

“That’s not true.” They argued like children. “I just clipped them last week!” Idis took a deep breath in to calm herself. “I, uh, was wanting to know if I could borrow your cat.”

“Ha ha! Little
Pus
face wouldn’t want to spend a minute with you. Besides, how would I do my magic without him?”

“It will just be for a little while. I need him to help me find Surla.”

“Why, that’s impossible.” Gretchen placed her pudgy hands on her hips. “You know if my cat goes out there hunting for yours, then it can become BeSwitched.”

“No, remember the Black Cats’ Curse
only applies if your cat runs away. Pussface will be helping me, not running away.”

“Oh yes, how could I forget
?” She stood in thought for a moment. “What would I get out of this?”

“Well, Vladimirror
can hook you up with The Witches’ Home Shopping Network.”

“Hmmmm.” Gretchen rubbed her hands together. “That sounds like a deal. You know I enjoy collecting junk.” Right then a scruffy black cat was tossed into Idis’s arms.

“Bye,” Idis called.

“Bye, bye. I’ll be waiting for my shopping network.” Her sister disappeared in the green fog.

“Hey, you didn’t ask me if I wanted to hook the shopping network up for her,” the mirror whined.

“Don’t feel too bad,” Pussface commented. “At least you aren’t exchanged with other witches without being asked.
”

“Hush up, you mangy critter.” Idis dropped him to the floor of her bedroom. “You are going to help me find Surla no matter how you feel.”

“I kinda figured that already.”

Surla couldn’t believe two weeks had already passed. Time was flying faster than anticipated. Being a human was becoming second nature to her and tomorrow would be the last day for playing tennis in P.E. Every two weeks they would learn a new sport.

Surla had planned on making all the flirtatious moves on Craig, but he ended up making them all on her. Before playing, he asked if he could get her phone number again. Chrissy and Travis had to wait while he got a pen to write it on his forearm. “555-9145,” he repeated.

“Yes.” Surla smiled, now knowing this was a major step in gaining a relationship.

When she returned to her side of the court, Chrissy shook her head in disapproval. Surla had not forgotten the warning about Tiffany, but she felt that intimidation shouldn’t stop her from helping Cathy’s situation. Whenever Surla scored a point, Craig would wink at her. Sometimes it even seemed as if the points were given to her, especially since Chrissy wasn’t putting in full effort again. And she could see how annoyed Craig’s partner was becoming, for letting her and Chrissy win.

When it was one of Craig’s turns to serve, he moved his eyebrows up and down at Surla before whacking the ball. The ball whirled in the air and Surla tried to reach it with her racket, but it was too far away. Instead it went flying toward Chrissy.

Chrissy was looking at her nails.

“Watch out!” Surla called, but it was too late. The ball knocked her on her forehead.

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Craig ran over to the net.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She rubbed the red spot and shot him a fiery look. Surla knew it must have hurt, but that didn’t seem like a good enough reason to be angry.

“It was an accident,” Surla told her.

Chrissy dropped her racket and went to the comer of the court. “Tell Mrs. Brown I’m hurt if she asks why I’m sitting out.”

“I’m really sorry,” Craig said once more.

She must be mad for more reasons than the fact that the ball hit her in the head
, Surla concluded. Craig and Travis began bouncing the ball off the wall, while Surla went to the corner to talk.

“What?!” Chrissy said, pestered.

“So, what’s been going on? Why have you been acting like this for the last couple of days?”

“Acting like what?”

“Come on, Chrissy. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing
.” She sighed.

“Whenever people say ‘nothing’ it usually means ‘something.’” Surla sat down. “You can tell me. Does it have to do with Tiffany?” she said, lowering her voice.

“It’s about Craig and Tiffany. I told you already, she likes him.”

“I know, but if Craig likes me then I should go for him. I don’t think he likes her.”

Chrissy sat, watching the guys still hit the ball off of the cement wall. “I understand how you feel, Cathy.” She looked Surla straight in the eyes. “But I don’t think you understand what Tiffany is capable of doing. I’m sure she could get Craig right now or talk him into anything.”

“Then why hasn’t she done it yet?” Surla played with the draw-string to her sweats, not bothered by Chrissy’s warning.

“I don’t know.” She shook her head.

“Why isn’t this court playing tennis?” Mr. Townshend yelled to them. Instantly they all went to their spots, even Chrissy. This time Travis served the ball.

In Chemistry, Surla reran the conversation she had with Chrissy over and over in her mind.
Should I be afraid of Tiffany?
she seriously considered.

Todd passed a note to Surla with his elbow, which said,
What’s wrong?

I just have a lot on my mind
, she wrote back.

Do you still want me to come over today?

That question conjured a guilty feeling, because she still didn’t get around to asking Cathy or her mom if it would be okay to have Todd over.
Of course I still want you to come over
, she wrote anyway.

Good!!! I was hoping you’d say that
.

Do you have a c
ar?
Surla desperately didn’t want to walk home.

Todd’s truck was a dark blue. The interior had brown, leather seats, which Surla liked the most. When she sat down it was nice and cushiony. The feeling reminded her of how soft her fur used to feel.

As they drove by
Revere Park, Todd pointed out Tiffany, Lisa and Chrissy. “I used to like Tiffany.”

That didn’t surprise Surla. “Didn’t every guy at one time like her?”

He smiled, but didn’t answer.

Surla stared a minute noticing his nice profile. His nose was perfectly sloped and his eyebrows were dark and shaped around alluring green eyes. But she thought his cheekbones were the most attractive; they stood out, making him look more masculine or older than the other boys at school.

“What are you looking at?” He smiled and turned to her a second.