What the Spell Part 1 (12 page)

I shook my head. “I have no idea,” I said quietly. “My parents don’t really use much magic in our house. I’ve only had my powers a couple weeks, so all of this is pretty new to me.”

“You just started using magic
two weeks ago
?” he asked, his eyes growing big. “You’re kidding me, right? Well, this explains your sudden makeover at least.”

“Is it that bad?” I asked meekly.

“No. Of course not. It’s just . . . it makes sense that you would sort of go crazy over the magic if you recently started using it. Me, I grew up with it. Been casting since I was about four.”

“That long?” I was suddenly embarrassed. “You must think that I’m such a loser. Being a witch and only coming into my powers now.”

“You, Brooklyn, are no loser. You’re just new to it all,” he said, giving me a little smile and nudging me with his shoulder. The touch let off a spark that coursed through my body like a little electric shock.

“Thanks,” I said. Letting out a sigh, I pulled my legs up to my chin and rested my cheek on my knees. I studied Asher’s face and couldn’t help but be reminded of just how cute he was. His skin was tan, and his eyes were almond-shaped and completely magnetic. If it was appropriate to call a guy beautiful, Asher would be it.

And he was magically inclined, just like me.

“I can’t believe you’re a witch too,” I said, shaking my head.

“Yeah. Small world, huh?”

“The smallest.”

We sat there in silence for a few minutes as we both thought about what had just happened. In the course of an afternoon, my life had once again been flipped upside down. My head was spinning. Suddenly I had so many questions. Questions that I didn’t feel comfortable asking my parents but might be able to ask Asher.

“Are we the only ones?” I blurted out. “I mean, who are witches. Are there others like us here at Clearview?”

“Well, there’s my sister, of course, but other than that, not that I know of. Then again, I only just found out about you, so you never know, I suppose,” he said. “There are about a dozen other kids here in town, but they’re spread across the other public and private schools.”

“I had no idea.” There were so many other things I wanted to ask, but I knew this wasn’t the time or place for it. For one, we were holed up in the school bathroom, and two, Abby was still hanging around outside guarding the door. “So, what now?” I asked, suddenly feeling shy that he knew my deepest, darkest secret.

“Now,” he said, winking at me, “we get to have a little fun.”

I started to laugh as he pulled me to my feet. In all the excitement, I hadn’t realized how cold the bathroom was, and
I shivered at his touch. The only noise was the constant flowing of the water.

“Mind doing the honors?” Asher asked, motioning toward the stalls. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall as if to watch. When I didn’t move, he gave me an encouraging look. “Come on. Show me what you can do!”

Scared that I would make a mistake and totally embarrass myself, I began to refuse, but then I realized magic was something that we could do together. Asher and I now had this one thing in common, and if I played my cards right, I could learn a lot while spending some QT with him at the same time.

It was genius.

“Um, okay. I’ll try,” I said, moving over to the first stall and pushing it open with my foot. “But I’ve only done a handful of spells, so don’t laugh if I mess up.”

Asher held his hands up as if in surrender. “I would
never
!”

Turning back to face the flowing water, I took a few seconds to center myself. This was especially difficult considering I had an audience, and a cute one at that. But I forced my eyes to focus on the water, and when I was ready I pointed at the bowl.

“Retro-undular!”

The water instantly began to taper off until nothing was coming out of the bowl. I stepped forward to peer inside and was happy to see that it had settled back to normal. A peek in the other stalls all showed the same thing.

“How was that?” I asked, turning around with a grin on my face. I hadn’t been sure it would work, but I was elated that it had.

“Impressive,” Asher said, nodding with approval. “It’s not what I would’ve done, but it was good. What was it?”

“Oh, it’s a reversal spell. Sort of like hitting the undo button on your computer,” I said. “It just reverses whatever you did.”

“Interesting. See, you’re already teaching me something.”

“Well, I’m sure there’s a lot you could teach me, too,” I said shyly.

“I think that could be arranged,” he responded, the slightest hint of flirtatiousness in his voice. I could feel my cheeks fill with heat and I tried hard to hide the evidence of my attraction by looking down at the ground. Now that the water had been turned off, there was only silence. Silence was not something I particularly liked.

Luckily, a few seconds later, the bathroom door opened and a head popped in. The girl was gorgeous: black hair, exotic-looking, olive skin, and amazing eyes. She kind of looked like . . .

“Hey, the natives are starting to get restless out here,” she said to Asher. Then she turned her head to me and said, “Hi.”

“This is my sister, Abby,” Asher explained.

“Hi,” I said, smiling.

“So. You’re a witch.”

“Yep.”

“Cool,” she said, before turning back to Asher. “We gotta go.”

“Okay,” he said, leading the way toward the door. “I’ll go out first. Why don’t you come out in a few minutes so no one gets the wrong idea.”

“Definitely wouldn’t want
that
,” I said under my breath.

Just as he put his hand on the door, he turned to look back at me.

“We should do some magic together sometime.”

I took a big gulp and prayed that I didn’t pass out.

“I would really like that,” I answered.

And with a smile and a nod, Asher slipped out the door.

After Asher outed me in the bathroom, things between us changed drastically. He went from popping up every once in a while around school to showing up every morning at my locker. The first time I arrived to see him standing there, I was so surprised I nearly dropped my books. Eventually, it became a part of our morning routine, one that I looked forward to every day. Then we began spending some of our time outside of school together too, going for coffee or walks along the promenade.

It wasn’t all as romantic as it sounds, though. Most of the time, Abby joined us. But I was so happy just to have other twitches to hang out with that it didn’t even bother me that I wasn’t getting more alone time with Asher.

It helped that Abby turned out to be really cool. She was younger than both of us and was practically my opposite, but we got along really well and I instantly felt connected to her. She couldn’t have cared less about having a social life and always
had her nose in a book, but she was completely interesting. She wasn’t a big talker, either, which worked out well, because I gabbed enough for the both of us. When she
did
speak, she always impressed me with what she had to say. I quickly realized that Abby was quiet not because she was shy but because she was so busy paying attention to what was going on around her. She was perceptive for sure. It became clear to me that Abby knew
everything
that was happening around school and was an excellent judge of character. She knew who was dating whom, who was failing gym class, and which athlete hadn’t come out of the closet yet. It was like being around a walking, talking encyclopedia of our school—all I had to do was ask.

It was easy to see that Asher adored Abby. To him, she wasn’t just his little sister. Abby was, in some ways, his best friend. And after hanging out with her just a few times, I could see why. The girl was wise beyond her years and 100 percent loyal.

On the rare occasions that Asher and I
were
alone, I at first found that I was so nervous just being around him, it was hard to concentrate. As time passed and we began to cast together, I became more comfortable with it all. He still made my stomach do flip-flops every time I saw him, but I was starting to be able to actually hold a conversation with him without getting all tongue-tied and saying something completely stupid. I never stopped smiling when I was around him. Actually, I was pretty much happy whenever I was with either of the Astleys. I felt like I could really be myself.

When the three of us spent time together, we mostly talked about magic and spells. Asher even taught me a few incantations that he’d been using for years. Like the chameleon spell that allowed a person to completely blend into his or her surroundings, until they literally disappeared. He confessed that
he’d used this one on several occasions to spy on his parents and even on Abby. I couldn’t wait to use it in my own life. Abby showed me a speed-reading spell, which I realized was probably the reason she was able to blow through a dozen books a week. I wasn’t exactly a book person, but I figured this could come in handy the next time I had to cram for a test.

“I’ve been trying to do the blowing-up spell you guys showed me last week, but my accuracy is really bad,” I said as I stood at Abby’s locker. I was careful to keep my voice low whenever we talked magic in public and kept watch for anyone who might sneak up on us midconversation. “I was aiming for an empty soda can the other day and ended up hitting my mom’s fruit bowl. I had to lie and tell her I accidentally knocked it off the counter. She would
not
have been pleased to find out I’m using magic to destroy things around the house.”

“Are you concentrating on the object itself? You need to picture it in your mind as well as see it with your eyes,” she said, sifting through the enormous pile of books in her locker, most of which weren’t school related. “Or maybe your aim is just off. Try moving your hand around to see if it helps you hit your target. You might just naturally lean more one way.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, my mind beginning to wander as I looked around the hallway. A group of football players bumped into each other and trash-talked as they walked by us. One of them caught my eye and winked at me. “Hey, girl,” he said, before continuing on his way.

I rolled my eyes and turned away. Stuff like that was so weird to me. I was still trying to get used to the attention I was now getting from everyone, guys in particular. Part of me was like, “Don’t bother paying attention to me now if you didn’t pay attention to me before.” But on the other hand, I couldn’t help but enjoy the fact that they were interested.
Wasn’t that why I’d wanted popularity in the first place? For people to know and like who I was?

“Why would you want to be popular if that’s what happens all the time?” Abby asked, acknowledging the football player who’d just hit on me. I shrugged in response. One of the first conversations Abby and I had was over her confusion about why I was suddenly spending time with The Elite. Since she and Asher were both sort of lone wolves—I think I was only welcomed into their pack because magic bonded us—the popularity quest didn’t make sense to her. She thought I was especially crazy to get involved with The Elite, given the rumors and the way they treated people around school, but I’d told her I had my reasons. It didn’t stop her from giving me a hard time about it, though.

And she wasn’t the only one. The Elite had also noticed that I was suddenly splitting my time between them and the Astleys. I don’t know if it was jealousy or if they didn’t like me hanging out with people they hadn’t approved of, but they ignored me whenever I was around Asher and Abby. As much as I didn’t want to, I was getting the hint. It didn’t mean I was ready to end the friendship with the only other twitches I knew, though.

I scanned the hallway until my eyes rested on a guy and a girl who were whispering to each other while standing solo across from us. I knew them both, though I’d never talked to them before. The girl was Shayla and the guy she was currently bumping shoulders with was Tucker. Tucker was sort of cool—he played guitar in a band with his older brother and a few of his friends. Apparently, he played gigs at a local hole-in-the-wall and had started to develop quite a following on YouTube. Shayla was a member of the school band and was actually pretty cute, in a slightly dorky way. She had red hair and never went anywhere without her flute.

“What’s up with those two?” I asked Abby, nodding in their direction. There was something intriguing about them, though I didn’t know why.