Kelly McClymer-Salem Witch 02 Competition's A Witch (17 page)

“Angelo?”
She wanted me to hook her up with my mortal neighbor? How many ways could I get into trouble for that one? Not to mention that crush-poaching made my teeth grind.

“You don’t like him, do you?” She put her hands to her heart as if she cared about stealing a guy from me.

“Are you kidding? I’ve sworn off mortal stuff completely, even guys,” I lied.

“Great!”

Yeah, great. There may be no I in team, but there is one in witch, and maybe, just maybe, there was no way to reconcile the two realities.

Angelo was busy edging our pathway when Samuel popped by for a tutoring session. I was busy watching Angelo through the window—which I quickly charmed to hide the interior from any curious glances.

“If you’re so worried that he’ll see you, why don’t you tell your mom to fire him?” Samuel asked.

I thought about trying to explain that my family had perfected the whole nosy mortal neighbor shtick back in Beverly Hills. That it was easier to keep them unsuspicious. But he was glaring at Angelo like he was going to do the firing himself, so I opted for a strategy of total distraction. “Agatha’s going to let me test out early.”

He stopped looking at the window, and while he was
looking away, I double-charmed it so that Angelo couldn’t see us and we couldn’t see him. I’d miss the eye candy, but I didn’t have the energy for a jealous snit when I had to throw my magical education into mega-overdrive. “When is it? Maybe we can double up on tutoring sessions.” He looked a little panicked, which wasn’t reassuring.

“Mom’s checking with Agatha to find out.” I tried to sound upbeat, despite the fact the whole thing made me feel like barfing. “She hasn’t said, so far. Probably the worst possible time, just because she hates me and my mortal ways.”

Predictably, he immediately tried to prop me up. “You’re doing much better. Should I make the ring buzz a little stronger?”

“A little.” I’d told him about the pizza fiasco. He’d made me promise to pay attention to the ring sooner rather than later. “And Mom has a call in to Cousin Seamus for an emergency session.”

“Don’t let a few shallow cheerleaders take your confidence away, Prudence. You’ll start thinking like a witch soon. You’ll manifest a Talent. You’ll be a great witch, I know it.”

“You know you’re talking to one of those
shallow
cheerleaders, right?” I couldn’t let that diss slide—even if it came from a clueless geeklock.

“You’re not shallow.” He believed that. I wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t yet called me on the fact that Maria and Denise hadn’t been invited to the sleepover, but I was waiting for
him to ask me to stand up and defend my friendship with the fringies. It was just his way. Sometimes I liked that about him and sometimes I didn’t.

Instead of knocking me for D-listing Maria and Denise, he went for a totally unexpected target. “You just like the bad boys too much. Like Daniel …” He turned to the window, and my double charm fell away to reveal Angelo, now trimming the branches of an apple tree. “That Angelo kid is going to get you in trouble, you know? You should probably stay away from mortals for a while.” Samuel tried to be casual about his statement, as if he had no personal reason for me to pretend Angelo didn’t exist.

“Maybe I want to be in trouble.” I probably shouldn’t have been flip, but I don’t like bossy guys, and Samuel being jealous of Angelo was a problem I had to solve right away. As much of a geek as Samuel was, I couldn’t imagine life without him.

“Aren’t you in enough trouble as it is, just trying to learn what you need to know to pass that test?”

That was so not fair. “Angelo cuts our lawn. He trims our trees. He’s mortal. Big deal. What do you want from me? You like that I’m half mortal. That’s why you wanted to be friends with me in the first place.” Which may have been a little harsh. But hey, he was a fringie and I had a sick feeling he was about to make me choose: him or Angelo.

“Sometimes I wonder if we really are friends.” Samuel
didn’t look at me when he said that. Which meant he really did wonder if I was using him or not.

“We are. If I didn’t have you, I would have run away weeks ago. I mean, Agatha hates me, I’m not a good witch, and I’m not even doing well as a cheerleader.” I smiled at him, hoping that a little reassurance was all he needed.

“Then why are you watching Angelo do yard work when you should be studying for your test?”

“I can look at Angelo and memorize potion ingredients at the same time.” Well, no, I couldn’t. But a little break every now and then made the mind sharper, or so my dad always said.

Samuel flipped his glasses at me once, then sighed. He didn’t believe me, but he didn’t say so. Wise of him. After all, what’s a little foggy gray truth between friends?

He flipped the funny lenses of his glasses one more time, though, just so I would know he was onto my lie. For some reason that just irritated me beyond temptation. “Now that I don’t live in Beverly Hills, I have to embrace my inner witch fully. Mom would never let me date a mortal. I’m surprised she even lets me cheer at mortal games. I bet she hopes we suck at the Regionals, too.”

He seemed surprised at my bitterness. “She’s right, Pru. The last thing you need is a mortal friend when you have to practice your magic 24/7.” I forgot that he liked my mom. And that he didn’t have one.

I couldn’t help defending myself, though. “We haven’t had any trouble with our study sessions. We’ve been able to keep everything from him.”

Like a woman fighting for the last Ferragamo, Samuel refused to let it go. “Maybe you would already know all the most common potion ingredients and their benefits if—”

Bzzt! Off-limits. “Whoa! That’s just unfair. It’s not like I invite him over. My mom is the one who hired him for yard work.”

He could tell I was upset, so he tried to back down. “Why did she do that, anyway? She could just set a few yard spells—or, better yet, let you practice some.”

I wasn’t going to let him diss Angelo, though. “Sure, if Angelo’s mother weren’t so nosy.”

“She is bad.” Samuel had seen her in action the day she’d managed to get Angelo invited to my party, so he knew I wasn’t exaggerating. But it wasn’t enough to make him give up dogging on me. “You should talk to your mom. Explain how he makes your magic practice harder. Or do you want me to do it? I’m sure she’d understand why you can’t have any mortals around while you’re working so hard on your magic. It interferes—”

We had wasted too much time on this. I decided it was time to end it. “Sounds good. Why don’t you tell her to kick my dad out, too, since he’s mortal?”

But no matter how many times I tried to distract him, Samuel kept coming back to the main point. Angelo. “Your
dad knows about you. You don’t plan to tell Angelo you’re a witch, do you?”

“
Tell
Angelo?” I’m not sure what paranoid brain fart made him think I’d tell Angelo I was a witch. Like I needed that headache? “Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell him a thing.”

Samuel was not happy with my reassurances. And it had nothing to do with Angelo seeing me do magic and everything to do with the fact I liked watching Angelo do his yard work. “Well, if you’re going to keep letting him come over, maybe I should stop tutoring you.”

“Are you serious?” I really hated being bullied. Especially by a friend. Especially because my friend was jealous—not that he had any right to be. One, he was not my boyfriend, and two, neither was Angelo. And neither were likely to have that honor the way my life has been going either.

“Absolutely. I’m not coming over when he’s over here.” He crossed his arms, and I realized we’d just hit an impasse. Right before my test. Figured. “He could catch us doing magic, and I don’t want that.”

“Well, fine then. I’ll just find someone else to tutor me,” I crossed my arms, ignoring the bracelet sounding the alarm at my wrist.

“Fine.” Samuel didn’t back down. In fact, he looked crushed.

“Fine.”

He muttered angrily, “Maybe you’re more like your mom than you thought you were.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I knew what it was supposed to mean-that I should stop seeing Angelo if I didn’t want to end up married to a mortal and making my life even more complicated than it already was.

“Nothing.” The bracelet on my wrist told me that was a lie. Which he confirmed by muttering, “Maybe you should forget the test and go back and live with mortals if you love being kewl so much.”

I knew it was a waste of time to defend the kewl to a fringie. But I did it, anyway. “There’s nothing wrong with being kewl.”

“What’s so right about it, then?”

I didn’t have an answer for him, but it didn’t matter because he was so angry, he just popped out on me without a split-second’s warning. I guess even geeks have their breaking point.

But then, so did I. And I was closer than I liked to think.

I had the biggest test of my life to pass, a fund-raiser to take care of, and championships to win. All while I had one witch hand tied behind my back with a mortal rope.

I wished I could count on the girls to help me sort this mess out. I could have counted on the Beverly Hills crew. Even Chezzie, who hated me, would have put aside her prejudices to offer me good advice on boy trouble. That’s the way we were. The way we had been. And that was gone.

I would’ve asked Maria and Denise, but they weren’t talking to me because I hadn’t invited them to the sleepover
portion of the party. I’d tried to explain that they’d have hated a sleepover with cheerleaders, but I could see it didn’t matter. Now that Samuel and I were fighting, they’d have even less reason to talk to me.

I didn’t want to lose Samuel as a friend. The thought made my chest ache. But what could I do? The truth was, I’d only sat at the lunch table with Samuel, Maria, and Denise because the only other choice was not to eat lunch. I’d meant to use them as a means to the cheerleaders’ table. And yes, I know that sounds shallow. But sometimes survival
is
shallow.

It had seemed simple enough at the time. But clearly I was looking through the eyes of a golden girl. I’d been in the in crowd since preschool back in Beverly Hills. I’d seen the fringe crowd, and I’m no snob, I’d say hi and share notes if asked. But friendships seemed as unlikely as the proverbial lion laying down with the lamb.

Who knew I’d like these fringies? Samuel the geek with the loyally golden heart, Maria the sweetheart with attitude, and Denise, the sharp mind hiding under layers of wool and tweed. They were my friends now. Not that the other cheerleaders really understood that. They were like I had been. I’d have to change that, but at the moment, I was still on probation with the team members.

So. Juggling needed to be done. I just wish I wasn’t feeling so tired that I didn’t think I could handle adding another double-edged sword to my already-full juggling schedule.

Despite the Grand Canyon divide between Samuel and me, and the upcoming test I didn’t have a study buddy for, life on the cheerleading front was sweet. The calendar idea had all the girls dreaming they’d be the next
Witch Vogue
find. Somehow, creating a calendar had bonded us in a way that actual practice and cheering at games hadn’t. Go figure.

We’d decided on a cover picture. For a little while, I’d been sure we were actually going to kill each other and go up in a big puff of smoke. But, somehow, we managed to find the one pose where everyone looked great and the squad looked like a real team—for once.

We’d done such a good job bonding over photo ops and flattering camera angles that Tara had her claws in the retract
position almost all the time. But her long-term memory was still as sharp as ever. “So, when are we going for that ride, Pru?”

“Angelo’s mother keeps him on a leash with a choke collar,” I stalled. I don’t know why I felt so proprietary toward Angelo. Maybe because he was off-limits to me and I didn’t really like the idea that the same rule didn’t apply to Tara. Or maybe it was just that I didn’t think that Angelo and Tara would make a good couple.

Whatever it was, I felt like I’d been stuck in a wringer with no place to go but ouch. I knew what Tara wanted me to do, and I knew I didn’t want to do it. Just like I knew I was going to have to do it whether I wanted to or not. That’s what squad sisters do. Even when it’s a total bummer.