In the Forest of Light and Dark (34 page)

There Can only Be one Witch of Homecoming
 

Friday came quicker than I'd imagined, and unexpectedly I had found myself really looking forward to going to the dance. Of course, there was the possibility that something truly horrible might happen there. Either between Abellona showing up or the bitches doing something to screw with me, most likely both, but I wasn't going to let that keep me down if I could. My skills had been steadily improving along with my confidence in them, which had me feeling pretty cocky. And, having spent much of the past week hanging out with Katelyn, Tucker, and Owen had also only added to my well-being. Seeing the boys again had made me feel like I was right back at home in Saraland, on my turf. I felt ready to take on anything, and how unbelievably wrong I was to think that.
     Earlier in the week, I had used what I had now dubbed
the
Cera mind trick
to convince my Step Daddy Cade to go against my mama’s wishes in telling her that we were staying in Mount Harrison for the long haul regardless of whether there was an evil dead girl out to get us or not. And, to be quite honest, it really didn't take much convincing on my part to get my step daddy to side with me either. There was no way he was going to give back that money just so it could go to the ASPCA, and he didn’t believe one word my mama had told him about Abellona Abbott anyhow.
    My mama didn't go down so easily though. She even tried proving it to him (After he had told her that she was full of you know what.) that she was telling the truth by showing him a little of her powers. But, after my step daddy had listened to my mama’s whole crazy story about witchcraft and her family’s history in Mount Harrison he didn’t have the reaction she’d hoped for. Even after the display she had put on of her powers. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her; it was just… Now he was more pissed off than a porcupine stuck to a cork board, and he didn't require much, if any, convincing from me to stick around and fight for what he now thought was his.
 

*****
 

On the day before the dance, I had picked up from a small boutique in the village a little black dress with matching short-heel pumps. The dress however, did have a tendency to cling to me a little too snugly in certain areas which made me feel somewhat awkward, so I debated wearing it. But, I damn sure looked
good
in it though, and that wins out every time.
     On the day of the dance, Tucker and Owen showed up at my house around 5p.m. He was decked-out in a white dress shirt, blue jeans, and Doc Martins. Owen looked almost identical to him except his shirt was a dark blue.
     I had wished that Tucker would have showed up a little more sharply dressed. But I supposed it was the best I could've hoped for given the fact that he had only brought a few changes of clothes with him when he and Owen came up from Saraland, and probably never would have imagined going to a dance while here.
     After a few pictures I said goodbye to my teary-eyed mama while my step daddy gave Tucker the,
Now
you behave yourself with my little girl
speech. We then left for Katelyn's house at a little after five o’clock and had decided to walk there and then over to the school. Only because neither place was all that far away and we had also planned on pre-gaming a little down by the bridge, and most likely, post-gaming a lot after the dance was over too. And, having Tucker’s truck parked on the side of the road would have been a dead giveaway for cops or anyone else that was nosey enough to come see who was doing what down by the water.
     The walk to Katelyn's was a quick one and almost cat free. Though at one point, I thought I had seen Midnight jet through a couple of bushes that lined the side of the road but I could’ve been mistaken.
     When we had arrived at Katelyn's, her mama had greeted us at the door saying, “Well, don’t you kids just look lovely.” She then let us in where we waited in the living room for Katelyn while she brought us some Cokes.
     After spending a few minutes small-talking with us, Katelyn's mama yelled up from the bottom of the staircase at Katelyn for a second time that
her friends were here.
A moment later I heard Katelyn fumbling around on the second floor of the house along with doors opening and then closing before finally hearing her reply down, “Send up, Cera.”
     I then looked at Tucker giving him a hesitant smile and said, “We'll be right back down in just a minute.” to which he just shrugged his shoulders while doing his best James Dean cool guy impression, and I scurried off up the stairs.
     When I had reached Katelyn's room her door was partially ajar, so I slowly opened it further whiles knocking gently.
     Upon entering I had seen Katelyn standing in the middle of her room while checking herself out in a wall mirror. She was wearing a red dress that clung fittingly to her hips and chest, its shade of scarlet also matching her red lipstick, and there was now a bit of crimson tint to her look that she’d applied to her already auburn hair. My first thought of her was,
Holy shit!
If, I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I would’ve never believed it. She looked great, not just great—
Beautiful
. It was as if she had shaken off all the black, all the darkness, and all the horrible things that’d been done to her in this village and emerged reborn,
baptized from her cocoon a completely different person. She was a normal girl again, the way she should always have been, full of excitement, optimism, and anxiety while waiting for her date to take her to the big school dance.
     She turned to me timidly totally unsure of herself and asked, “So... What do ya think?”
     “Seriously, you’re goin’ to wear
that
, bit trampy don’tcha think?” I told her as I gave her a look of utter disgust, but then I wasn’t able to hide how I really felt any longer and I said, “Wow!” still completely in shock and searching for my words. “I think Owen is going to be the most envied guy there tonight.”
     “You really think it looks alright. It's not too much?”
     “I think you look awesome.” I said giving her my honest two cents. “And, it's about friggin’ time you got into something with some color. Now, grab your shit because your prince awaits.”
     Katelyn then took a deep breath before letting out a labored exhale and I could tell that she was super nervous about leaving her room and letting people see her dressed this way. But, I was not about to let her back out now, so I grabbed her by the arm and began pulling her towards the stairs insisting that we didn’t want to be late. I even had purposely walked behind her while going down them so she couldn't retreat back into her room.
     At the bottom of the stairs she paused, taking another deep breath before heading into the living room. When she finally did walk into the room it suddenly fell into a hush of silence. I even saw Katelyn's mama gasp before putting a hand up over her mouth. After quickly regaining her composure, Katelyn's mama then called out to Katelyn's father telling him to;
Hurry his lazy ass into the living room
as she had put it before she herself then darted off to retrieve her camera.
     After a few keepsake snapshots we departed and headed for drinks down by the Genesee. We still didn't need to be at the school for more than another hour, and even then we might have been early figuring that most people would show up presumably late.
     Down by the river, under the Colmack Road Bridge, Katelyn hit the schnapps Owen had scored pretty hard trying to calm her nerves. I couldn’t blame her though, having her classmates’ see her done up like this must’ve been unimaginable for her. Still though, I had to tell her more than once to take it easy with the alcohol or else she’d end up puking in the ferns. To which she replied back to me more than once with her middle finger.
     Soon though, once we were all thoroughly buzzed, we’d made our way over to the school. But not before a few spritzes of perfume and a mouthful of mints having done the trick at concealing our intoxication and ensuring our entry into the dance without any of the teachers giving us a hard time.
     After arriving at the dance it was exactly what I had expected. A semi-full gymnasium of our classmates segregated off into different groups socializing, every last one of them with a glass of punch in their hands. The wallflowers hiding out in the corner near the bleachers. Some lame-ass pop star babbling on about nothing while being played so loud that you couldn’t hear what the person standing right next to you was saying. And, one lonesome buffoon dancing so terribly that they had reminded me of someone having a seizure, but I’m sure that in their mind they had thought they were the one getting the party started. Yes, the whole scene indeed was a coming of age movie cliché if I’d ever seen one.
     Of course, when we had walked into the room we received the usual murmurs, glances, and all the stares that we had expected. Although I had thought that most of them had been directed at Katelyn given her transformation, and I couldn't blame anybody for that. I would’ve been gawking along with them.
     Once inside, Tucker and Owen had quickly slipped away to grab Katelyn and me a glass of punch during which time I found myself scanning the room for the bitches. It didn't take long to spot them either. All three were on the other side of the gym being showered with attention from all the other wannabes. I didn't see the meatheads with them though, which put me on guard wondering where they were. I didn't have to wait long though to get my answer because they found me. When from behind Katelyn and I came the sound of Harlin's voice uttering the words, “Look at these Fucking Whores.” which was then quickly followed up by Donnie adding, “Yeah, looks like Katelyn's got herself all dolled-up so she can try another run at my cock.”
     Of course, that shit just wasn't going to mash with me, and I was about to send both of them flying across the gymnasium right then and there. But then, it turned out, I didn't have to because right at that moment Tucker and Owen had come back from the refreshment table and had heard everything.
     It didn't take long for my friends to catch on to just who it was at my school that had made my life so miserable recently, and as a result the Southern good-old-boys side of Tucker and Owen came out real quick.
     “Hey, Assholes! What the fuck did you say?” Owen dourly called out with a look on his face that could only be described as stern and contorted.
     Harlin, Donnie, and Erik just stood there looking back at him dumbfounded. Their faces puzzled and locked in frozen masks as if contemplating,
Who the hell are these guys, and
what should we do
or say next?
     Tucker then looked at Owen and nodded towards the meatheads while arrogantly saying, “Look at these fuckin’ jack-offs. So much to say just a moment ago and now all quiet like a bunch of scared little pussies.”
     I had glanced at Katelyn and saw that she wanted to say something before things got out of hand, but I knew that Tucker and Owen weren’t about to do anything here. It wasn't their style to throw down in front of a room full of witnesses, that would surely also get the teachers, and most likely the cops involved in the process. So I quickly put a hand on Katelyn's arm, giving her a little head shake to tell her to just do nothing and let it go.
     “W-Who... Who are you guys?” Harlin stammered, and I relished every moment of the pure fear that I sensed radiating off of him.
     “Oh, who are we?” Owen replied smugly. “We're the guys that are gonna kick the livin' shit outta you and your friends.”
     “What's your problem, man?” Erik sneered.
     “Our problem,
Maaan!
Is that we don't take to kindly to a bunch of punk-ass bitches givin' our friends a hard time. It makes us want to get real violent, real quick.” Owen threatened, stepping forward and getting into Erik's face.
     “I think you girls need to apologize for what you just said about Katelyn and Cera.” Tucker then said sounding authoritative, reminding me of a cop. “I think you girls need to apologize for
all
the things you've said about them and have been doin’ to them.”
     “I ain't apologizing for shit!” Harlin snapped, suddenly finding his balls, and I assumed it was most likely because he had by then realized that he’d been surrounded by a room full of teachers and thereby would be protected. And, he was right because a moment later we heard, “Mr. Tapp, do we have a problem here?”
     It was Mr. McLaren, he had walked up after having picked up on the hostilities that were steadily growing between the meatheads and Tucker and Owen.
     “No, Mr. McLaren, there's no problem here.” Harlin said while angrily staring down Tucker.
     “Good. Now why don't you guys get back to your dates then?”
     Harlin, Erik, and Donnie just continued to screw face Tucker and Owen as they started to walk away. But, before they had made it out of earshot Owen called out, “Don't think y’all are gettin’ out of here before we’ve had a chance to dance, ladies.”
     McLaren then focused his attention on Tucker and Owen asking them, “And, just who are you two gentlemen?”
     “They're with us.” I said stepping in claiming mine and Katelyn’s dates.
     “I see, Miss. Singer.” Mr. McLaren then said to me sounding somewhat haughty. “I'm not going to be expecting any more trouble out of you guys, am I?”
     “No, Mr. McLaren.” I said to keep him happy.
     “Good.”
     After that we had kept our distance on the other side of the gym and socialized to ourselves. Then, as the dance progressed into the evening it kind of felt like there was an imaginary line drawn down the floor splitting the gymnasium in half, us on our side and the meatheads and the bitches on theirs.
     By the end of the first hour, I had managed to put past me what had happened between Tucker, Owen, and the meatheads. It also looked to me as if Katelyn had managed to do the same as it appeared that she was having a pretty good time. In fact, at one point during one of the slow numbers, it looked as if Katelyn and Owen were getting pretty comfortable with one another.
     A short while later, between songs Katelyn had asked me if she could use my cell phone so she could call Terra having said that she’d promised her we’d call. She wanted to inform her that we had made it to the dance safely and were all alright, so of course I’d given it to her. But before she had placed the call, the music swiftly picked back up causing her to say that she was going to go outside to make the call so that she could hear better. Owen then said he would accompany her just in case the meatheads or the bitches were to try something, but I really think he just wanted the chance at getting Katelyn alone for a while because when they left he had trotted off with her like a love-sick puppy.
     After Katelyn and Owen had left the gym, Tucker, and I went off to get more punch because the temperature in the room had seemed to skyrocket as the night went on, most likely due to all the people in the room dancing like morons.
     As we sipped on our drinks and people watched Tucker had begun talking to me about Saraland and the future. He even at one point commented about him moving up here to New York, saying something along the lines of there being nothing really left for him in Saraland except for being a grease monkey at his uncle's garage and that maybe he should,
“Give-it-a-go,”
as he had put it, up here.
     I really didn't want Tucker uprooting his life because of some silly crush he had on me so I tried to discourage such thoughts by pretending what he was saying was just talk and nothing more.