Witch - By Fiona Horne Page 0,16

to hang with this Fish Lips loser with her Shrek friend and Weirdo Twins crew. And I told you – it’s her or me.’ She stormed off. ‘And forget about being voted back in as class president!’ she yelled back over her shoulder.

‘You don’t have to talk to me, Bryce. Go and make up with your girlfriend,’ I said, walking away.

‘No, wait, Vania, you don’t understand.’ He followed me and gently grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop and turn towards him. ‘I’m so sorry I was avoiding you. Cassidy told me that I wasn’t to talk to you. That I couldn’t hang out with you. And I hoped that if she saw we weren’t spending time together she and her friends wouldn’t be so . . .’ his voice faltered, ‘. . . nasty to you.’

‘I don’t care if Cassidy is nasty, Bryce – she means nothing to me.’

‘Well, you mean something to her.’

I looked at him, confused. I knew what I meant to her; I was a loser who deserved to be picked on for the rest of my life.

Bryce seemed embarrassed. He looked down. I could see the long sweep of his eyelashes dusting his cheeks . . . soft and beautiful . . .

I had to get a grip! I steeled myself to hear the obvious.

‘I told Cassidy last night that she’ll just have to deal with us being friends.’ He looked over to where Cassidy was standing with her group of friends by the drinking fountain. She saw him looking and turned her back with a toss of her head. ‘I told her I need to take a break from her and that whole group, actually,’ he said.

I had to stop my jaw from dropping. My heart leapt, but just as quickly it sank. I needed to protect myself. A guy like Bryce would never fall in love with a girl like me, and right now I was falling head over heels.

I realised I was staring at him, saying nothing, and I quickly looked down, my hair shielding my face.

He put his hand lightly on my arm. ‘Friends, okay?’

At his touch I trembled, but he had said the F-word. I tried to think.

We could be friends – that would be safe. In fact, we could even be best friends. If he were to meet another girl and wanted to date her, I would cope.

‘Friends.’ I looked up and smiled. But inside, my heart closed shut with a thud.

Six

After stumbling across the Purple Raven on the present hunt, the cafe had become my favourite place to hang out. It was cool, mysterious and, best of all, no one else from school knew about it. Almost a week after Bryce and I had decided to become friends our group was gathered around a cafe table. The table was draped with a lush red velvet cloth and in the centre a candle glowed softly, emitting an exotic scent. It was the perfect setting to talk to Bryce, Dean and the twins about an idea I’d been mulling over. The Sixth Sense and Us had inspired me to suggest forming a magical club. We would be a bit like the Spiritualists who used to gather together in Summerland, but we wouldn’t just talk to dead people – we could also do spells and cool psychic things together.

The book emphasised that there was a big advantage when people formally bonded to do magic – a group could become more than the sum of its parts.

Forming a magical club might seem like a lofty aspiration, but my motives were actually pretty basic. Having been rejected by the cool clique, I thought we could create our own – a magical one. Then we could kick the cool clique’s butts . . . metaphorically speaking. We didn’t need them. Maybe our club could magically help me find out why Mr Barrow had it in for me, too. So far I was completely clueless.

Brenda came over with a jug of homemade lemonade and a selection of cookies.

‘These blue ones are for enhanced communication,’ she said, smiling. ‘It looks like you guys are having a meeting, so I thought they may come in handy.’

‘Another recipe of your gramma’s?’ I asked.

‘Yes. You might be able to taste sweet basil – it loosens the tongue.’

‘This place is really cool,’ Amelia said, looking around appreciatively as Alyssa nodded her agreement.

Bryce and Dean were gripping opposite ends of the table and looking at me expectantly. It was time to