Dark Realms (28 page)

“This must be your favorite class,” remarked
Hailey with a sly smile. “You get to cook and eat. Looks like you
did a lot of that last summer.”

The other girls started giggling but I
ignored her, and instead stared at the teacher, who was beginning
to take attendance.

During class we learned about the importance
of using measuring scales for insuring a healthy, balanced
diet.

“Obviously Kendra doesn’t measure,”
whispered Hailey loud enough for me to hear.

The two other girls giggled again.

This time she really got to me and I don’t
even know why.

“Oh, someone’s going to cry,” she whispered,
a triumphant look on her face.

My eyes burned as I tried to hold back the
tears and I raised my hand to escape to the bathroom.

“Are you okay?” asked Miss Barnes, who
seemed genuinely concerned.

I nodded without meeting her eyes but
fortunately, she let me go.

The girl’s bathroom appeared empty when I
slammed through the door. I hurried into a stall and let myself
go.

“Um, are you okay?” asked a soft voice in
the next stall, surprising the crap out of me.

I cleared my throat. “Oh, I’m fine.”

I wiped my face with a tissue and then
flushed the toilet, trying to compose myself. When I opened the
door and walked to the faucet to wash my hands, the girl from the
next stall stepped out and our eyes met in the mirror. Her blond
hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she was dressed in
track pants and a hot pink T-shirt. She was also a heavier-set
girl, like me.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Julie.”

Embarrassed that I was caught crying, I
smiled sheepishly. “I’m Kendra, sorry about the tears.”

She snorted. “Are you kidding? It’s not a
big deal at all.”

Although I’d never actually talked to her,
I’d seen her in the halls laughing with her friends. She usually
hung out with the brainiacs in the school and I’d heard she had the
I.Q. of a genius.

“Still,” I mumbled.

“Listen,” she said, fumbling in her purse.
“Everyone has their moments.”

I nodded and watched as she applied some
Chaptstick to her lips. “Maybe. I seem to have a lot these days and
Hailey Bates isn’t making it easier.”

“Hailey?” she said. “Eh, don’t let her get
to you. She’s going to have a rude awakening after she graduates,
and someday, she’ll regret being such a bitch to everyone.”

“That’s nine months away and I have her in
my class for at least one semester,” I mumbled, looking at my
reflection in the mirror. “Sometimes I wish I could just drop out
of school and be done with it.”

“Don’t,” said Julie. “I know it sucks, but
you can’t let people like her win.”

“They win no matter what,” I said. “Popular
girls are thin and pretty. They have nothing to worry about.”

She turned to me. “Well, you can always lose
weight but they’ll still be ugly inside.”

“I’ve tried and it hasn’t helped me do
anything but gain more weight from being depressed after I’ve
failed.”

“Well, don’t give up. I lost twenty pounds
last summer and I only have thirty more to go,” she said with a
proud smile. “It’s hard work and takes a lot of willpower, but my
old baggy jeans are proof that, yes, it can be done.”

“I wish I had
your
willpower.”

She sighed and wrote down something on a
piece of paper. “You’re standing in your own way of losing weight
with that attitude. Look, here’s my phone number. If you want a
diet buddy to motivate you, give me a call.” Then she handed me her
phone number.

It was nice of her to offer, but I doubted
that I’d ever call her. “Oh, well thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she answered with a smile.
Then she grabbed her purse and left.

I stared at myself in the mirror again, and
sighed. She was obviously right – I wanted to lose weight, but was
putting up my own roadblocks. I just didn’t know how to knock them
down.

Chapter Four

During lunch I nonchalantly looked around
for Tyler, but didn’t see him anywhere in the cafeteria.

“Hey, sis,” smiled Kala. She was sitting
with the popular crowd when I walked by her table. “Want to sit
with us?”

The other girls froze and stared at me in
horror after that invitation. My sister didn’t seem to notice,
though, she just stared at me curiously.

I shook my head. “No, thanks,” I said,
hurrying away.

“Hey, Kendra,” said Megan Fisher when I was
about to walk past her table. She was sitting with three other
girls, and all of them were dressed in black.

“Hi,” I said, stopping next to them.

All four girls had a reputation for being a
little strange. In fact, there were rumors that they practiced
witchcraft and so almost everyone kept their distance.

“Saw you with that cute
guy, the one with the sunglasses, today in the hall. When Mark was
blowing smoke out of his pie-hole,
again
,” said Megan.

I sighed. “Yes, as always he was being a
total jerk.”

“So what’s with you and the new guy? Are you
two seeing each other?”

I shook my head vehemently. “No, we were
just walking to class together.”

Megan looked at her friends
and smiled. “Interesting. I might have to get to know
t
hat
tall drink of
water. Um, you don’t mind, do you, Kendra?”

I shrugged. “No, why would I mind?”

“I just don’t want to step on anyone’s
toes.”

“You wouldn’t be stepping on mine, don’t
worry.” Although I had to admit, I did feel a spark of
jealously.

“So, I’m having a get-together at my house
after school. Would you be interested?” asked Megan in a low
voice.

The fact that she was asking me over shocked
me. Megan only lived a block away and we used to play together in
the neighborhood when we were really young, but that had been years
ago. Plus, I’d never seen the inside of her house. She was a nice
girl, though, and I could always use new friends. “Maybe. I’ll have
to check with my mom when I get home. She may already have plans
for me.”

She smiled warmly. “Okay, I really hope you
can make it.”

Amy and Brenda were sitting together at a
table in the back and they waved to me. I excused myself and walked
over. I plunked down next to Amy and smiled. “Hey, guys.”

“Hi. So what were the witches talking to you
about?” asked Amy.

I smiled. “Come on, they’re not
witches.”

“Maybe not, but they’re still pretty
creepy,” said Brenda.

I glanced back over to Megan’s table and
none of them were talking to each other. In fact, they were all
staring at me, which I had to admit, did kind of gave me the
creeps.

“Okay, so they’re a little different,” I
admitted. “Um, they invited me over to Megan’s house after
school.”

Amy’s jaw dropped. “Are you going to do
it?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“You can’t go over there,” whispered Brenda.
“I heard that Megan’s mother is a real witch and has placed hexes
on people.”

“Oh, for Heaven’s sake,” I snorted. “There
is no such thing as real witches.”

Amy frowned. “Don’t be naïve, Kendra. This
whole town has a history of women performing witchcraft.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Really?” We’d only
lived in Bayport my entire life and I’d never heard anything about
adults studying witchcraft in town.

Amy nodded. “Yeah, if you look up the town’s
history you’ll find several articles written about the ‘Witches of
Bayport’.”

Brenda leaned forward. “I
actually did a report last year on them. Many of the witches moved
from Salem in the late sixteen hundreds to Bayport, Michigan to
escape the persecutions.
Entire
families of witches moved here.”

“So you’re saying that many of the people
living in this town are descendants of witches and warlocks?” I
asked, smiling.

“Something like that. But most of them gave
up their practices over time,” said Brenda.

“Probably because they finally realized they
didn’t have any real magical powers,” said Amy.

“Well, I have to admit, it is kind of
interesting,” I said. “I guess it also explains why Megan and her
friends are so into witchcraft. It’s just too bad they waste so
much time on something that won’t do them any good,” I said.

“Not to change the subject or anything,”
said Amy. “But where’s that cute guy you were walking with earlier,
um… Tyler?”

My cheeks grew warm. “I don’t know, probably
trying to stay as far away from me as possible, now that he’s been
in the school for half the day.”

“I saw him in the hall earlier,” said
Brenda. “He was arguing with some girl.”

Now that was surprising.

“Really? He never mentioned anything about
knowing anyone here,” I said.

“Maybe he’s making some enemies already,”
said Brenda.

“Well, he did almost get into a fight with
Mark Davis,” I said. “But Mark backed down.”

“I heard about that,” said Amy. “Mark
actually walked away from a fight. That is totally weird.”

I nodded, still wondering about the girl
Tyler was arguing with. Maybe he had a girlfriend? He’d just moved
into the city but that didn’t mean he hadn’t met anyone over the
summer. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, and although it was
kind of a bummer, it really wasn’t any of my business. He was just
a guy who’d been nice to me. So what if he had amazing green eyes
and smelled like cake? He was different and it was still cool.

I had two more classes before last period,
and they dragged on. The truth was that I couldn’t wait for last
period to see Tyler again. At the end of the day, I hurried to
English class and watched the door, hoping he’d sit near me again.
When the bell rang and he didn’t even show up for class, I
seriously bummed out.

“No homework yet,” warned the teacher, Mr.
Kemp, when the bell rang at the end of the day. “But next week I’ll
have plenty lined up for you, so be ready.”

I passed by my sister on the way to the bus
and she pulled me aside.

“I’m catching a ride with Mark Davis,” she
said. “We’re going to the library first and then he’s going to
bring me home.”

I stared at her in horror. “Mark Davis?”

She smiled. “I know, right?
Mark is
so
cute. I
can’t believe he’s even interested in me.”

My sister obviously wasn’t even aware of how
pretty she was. And as far as I was concerned, Mark was a real
tool; even if he’d apologized for being a jerk earlier.

“He’s only cute if you like assholes who
like to torment people,” I snapped.

“Seriously? He was super sweet in History
class today. To everyone, even Bonnie Hanson.”

That was a surprise, considering he used to
pick on her all the time because of her height. She was less than
five-feet tall and he used to rip on her all the time. Another
reason why I hated him with a passion.

“Fine. Well, have fun,” I said, walking away
before I missed the bus and she talked him into giving me a ride
too.

I got on the bus and was turning on my iPod,
when someone sat down in front of me.

“Hey,” said Tyler, sitting sideways so he
could talk to me. As usual, he wore his shades.

“Hi,” I said, removing my earphones. “You
missed a very boring class last period.”

Tyler smiled. “I actually like English, if
you can believe it.”

I wanted to ask him why he’d missed it then,
but I didn’t want him to think I was nosy.

“So, what are you doing after school?” he
asked.

I raised my eyebrows – I’d never been asked
that question from a guy. “I um, I don’t know, why?”

He smiled. “You should stop by my mom’s
shop. She just opened it last week and there are some pretty cool
things in there.”

“Your mom owns her own store? What
kind?”

He removed his sunglasses and his hypnotic
eyes caught me off guard once again. “It’s called ‘Secrets’ and
it’s filled with the wonders of the universe.”

I stared in awe at his eyes, wondering if he
wore some kind of colored contacts. “Wonders of the universe?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “No, I’m
just messing with you. She sells aromatherapy, incense, oils, and a
bunch of other stuff.”

“Oh,” I answered. “Well, that kind of
sounds… interesting.”

He nodded and put his sunglasses back on.
“There’s something for everyone. My mother has traveled the world
to fill her store with all kinds of odds and ends. Anyway, you
should stop by. It’s right on Main Street.”

I’d remembered seeing the new sign on one of
the storefront windows. It was within walking distance from my
house and I didn’t think my mom would have a problem with it. If
anything, she’d be happy I was getting outside to walk.

“I’ll see if I can stop by later today,” I
said, unable to wipe the smile from my face. I couldn’t help but
feel a little nervous and totally excited at the same time.

The bus stopped at his stop and he stood up.
“Sounds good. I’ll be there all night. See you later, Kendra.”

Chapter Five

“Where’s your sister?” asked my mom the
moment I walked through the door by myself.

“Oh, she’s with this
poser
named Mark
Davis.”

“Stop running in the house,” ordered my mom
as two little girls chased each other out of the kitchen.

“Mom, I’m going into town. There’s this new
shop I want to check out,” I said quickly.

My mom cocked an eyebrow. “You want to check
out a new shop… interesting. What is it – a new bookstore?”

I loved reading books and that was usually
the only type of store I visited without being dragged, kicking and
screaming.