Wish (9 page)

      “I’m not much of a help.”

      “No. That’s not true. I mean. I can talk to you about
this. And you’re not running away or having me committed.”

      He tried to smile again but the corners of his mouth
failed to turn upright. “Why doesn’t this freak me out more than it does?”

      I lifted my shoulders and dropped them with a sigh.
“Turning sixteen totally sucks. Nothing surprises me anymore.”

      As if to prove me wrong one of Nana’s favorite old
songs from the seventies suddenly began playing. My eyes opened wide and my
head felt frozen. It was Witchy Woman by the Eagles. The pocket in my Skeleton
Jams vibrated. I reached inside and pulled out a Pink covered phone. The ring
tone was Nana’s favorite song. I flipped it open.

      “Hello?” There was no answer on the other end.

      I dropped the phone on the floor and Keith and I raced
out of Mom’s room.

Keith followed me into my bedroom, tracing my steps to the
make-up table Nana gave me when I was ten. I picked up a brush to pull through
my tangles and he and plunked down on the bench. He’d been in my room a million
times, but somehow now it felt awkward, a boy in my private sanctuary. This
whole hormonal becoming a woman thing was much more complicated than I’d
thought.

“You wished yourself a new phone,” he said. “So. That’s kind
of cool. Isn’t it?”

“I am never using that thing,” I snapped. “It’s evil.”

Nana would be proud.

      “Still. I mean. It just proves it more. You’re special,
Sydney. Somehow, I always suspected. Like the dream. And now this. Magic.” He
puckered his mouth and wiggled his lips back and forth. “I fit into this
somehow. I mean, I bought you that necklace.”

      I reached for elastic as he rose, raking through his
own hair. My fingers brushed against his. As soon as our skin touched, my eyes
closed in pain, as if he’d reached into my insides and twisted them around.
And, so not in a good way.

Instinctively with my other hand I reached for my necklace. I
rubbed it and the cold metal against my fingers rescued me, and my ability to breathe
returned. I gasped, as if I’d been drowning.

      “Sydney?” Keith raised his hand as if to touch me, but
I raised mine in the air to stop him.

      “What happened?” he asked.

      “I don’t know,” I said as honest as I could be for the
moment. I’d sensed something dark inside him, something I didn’t think Keith
knew was there.

It scared me.

      I wrapped my arms around myself and shuddered.

      “I think it might be easier to go crazy,” I mumbled.

      “What?”

      I motioned for him to stand. “Nothing. Hey. Will you to
wait for me downstairs? I think I’ll get ready. We can go to school. ”

      Keith got up. “We don’t have to go if you don’t want
to. I can skip.”

      “I don’t need corrupting you on my conscience.”

      “I don’t mind. This is pretty huge. We can go to the
mall. Hang out. Think things through.”

“You’re sure. You hate the mall.”  

      He nodded. 

      “Okay,” I finally said. “Um. I have to get ready?”

      His cheeks turned red and he looked around as if he’d
just remembered we weren’t kids anymore. He smiled the Keith smile I knew and
loved. “Sorry. No problem.”

      He walked past me, out my door.

      “I’ll be down in a minute, don’t leave,” I shouted
after him.

      I waited until his feet clomped on the stairs, and then
hurried back to my mom’s room. I rushed to her bed, brushed Magic and off the
book and picked it up and opened to the Sentry Page. My eye caught something I
hadn’t noticed before. At the bottom of the page there was an etching.

“Beware of the SHIELDERS.”

      Magic screeched.

      I barely muffled a scream and grabbed at my heart and
shot my cat a dirty look. Shaking my head I closed the book and hurried to the
walk in closet. Glancing over my shoulder, I placed the book inside the
cubbyhole, closed the trap door and slid the rug back in place.

      I darted out of my mom’s room down the hallway to the
bathroom. I winced at a new achy cramp in my stomach. An idea crept into my
head. I was a witch who could wish for things. Hmm. This called for another
experiment.

      “I wish this Period was done. Gone. No more,” I said to
my reflection.

My cramps lessened. Yes. They were going. Going, going, gone.
My mood got a little less crappy. I stood up straighter. Hey, maybe I needed to
rethink this witch business. The money I could save on Midol alone. I grinned.
Oh yeah baby. No more Aunt Flo. Just to be safe though, I stuck a fresh paddy
thing in my panties.

      I glanced at myself in the mirror. Gah. Well this was
still a mess. I needed time to look normal but I didn’t have time. I smiled.
But I did have magic.

“I wish I’d had a shower and shaved and put on fresh make-up.
And that my hair was blown dry and flat ironed like they do it at the hair
salon.” I glanced in the mirror. Presto. I grinned. Yup. Some parts of this
witch biz I could get used to.

I hurried back to my room to pull on some clothes.

“You look nice,” Keith, said as I descended the stairs.

      I’d looked down at my yoga pants and t-shirt. Not
exactly a grand fashion moment but I’d figured this was a day that called for
comfort. I frowned, wondering if he was mocking me.

      “No, really.” Keith paused and then I swear his cheeks
got kind of blotchy. Like they do when he’s embarrassed.

      “You look uh, good. I don’t know. You always look good,
but you look really good.”  I reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped,
holding the rail.

      “I always look good?” I demanded.

“Yeah
you always do. I don’t need to point it out to you.” He turned away from me.

I
scrunched up my nose. “Uh. No I don’t and yeah, you do. Whatever. What class
are you going to miss?”

      “Art.”
He lifted his shoulder and looked back at me. “You?”

I
was glad for the change in subject matter. “Science. Mr. James won’t even notice
I wasn’t there.”

      Keith nodded. There was an unverified but often
repeated rumor that Mr. James kept a flask of whiskey locked in his desk at
school. Kids in his class didn’t even have to write papers to get a grade. He
gave everyone a mark whether they wrote or not.  It was suspected he didn’t
even look at anything handed in, except for the papers of the really smart kids
who would notice.

“You’re sure you don’t mind missing art?” It was his passion
and we both knew it.

      The doorbell interrupted us. We both snapped to
attention and stared towards the front door. It rang three times in a row.
Quickly. Then a pause and it rang three more times.

      “Stevie,” we said at the same time.

      “Don’t say anything to her about this stuff,” I said as
I walked towards it. “Not yet.” I glanced back over my shoulder.

      Keith nodded his expression gloomy. We’d never kept
secrets from Stevie. Not before today. But this wasn’t like anything else.

      The front door flew open before I reached it. “Hey, Sydney,”
Stevie shouted as she walked inside. “It’s not even locked, you dork.”

She spotted Keith behind me. “Oh,” she said in a normal
voice. “You’re here, too.” She frowned. “What the heck are you wearing, Keith?
What is wrong with you two?”

      Keith and I glanced at each other and then at Stevie.
He frowned and I covered a smile with my hand.

“What’s the big deal? It’s a shirt.”

      Stevie stuck out her tongue and made a face to show
very clearly what she thought of his shirt. “Not a cool shirt.” Then she turned
to me. “I thought you were alone. That maybe you still had cramps. Cody said
you stayed home because you weren’t feeling well. By the color on his face I
thought you told him you had your period.”

      She giggled and pointed at my face. “Yeah. That’s the
same color.”

I ignored her and gestured at Keith to come as I slipped on
shoes. I really wanted to tell Stevie I had magic powers and I’d just wished my
period away. Gone. Just like that. Ha ha ha. 

      “You two are going back to school?” Stevie asked as
Keith bent to tie his Converse shoe laces. 

      “We were going to head to the mall.” I wanted to tell
her to leave. So I could be alone with Keith. Talk about what was happening.
Try to figure out what the heck to do with my witchiness.

“Can I come?”

Keith and I exchanged a quick glance and he arched his
eyebrow up. I lifted my shoulder slightly.

“I guess. Yeah. Or course. Sure.”  I opened the door and Stevie
went outside and I waited for Keith to pass me so I could lock up. “Hey How’d
you get here anyhow?”

      “Cody dropped me off,” Stevie said. 

      I pulled the door shut and locked it.

      “Cody?” I asked and turned to her.

      She shrugged and this time it was her cheeks that
turned a pinker shade. “He offered to drop me off, so I said yes.”

      Keith gave her a playful shove with his shoulder. “Stevie’s
got a boyfriend?” he teased.

      I laughed with him as Stevie scowled and held out the
house key to her. “Can you put this in your pocket, Stevie? I don’t have any.”

      She held out her hand. When my hand brushed hers my
head exploded with an image. Stevie lay on grass, her eyes closed. Cody knelt
beside her. He held her hand and his mouth moved but I couldn’t hear what he
was saying.

Stevie grabbed the key and pulled away from me and the image
burst like a bubble disintegrating in the air. I regained my composure as we
all headed for the driveway and piled into Keith’s car. I got in the back seat
without even arguing or shouting for dibs for the front. Visions along with
everything else seemed too much for a brand new witch with a low tolerance for change.

I could use the solitude.

**

Stevie had pulled me into a change room and had squeezed her
big boobs into a tank top in the room we were crammed into.

“
Keith
is going to get mad if we try on clothes,” I told her reflection.

      Stevie rolled her eyes at me and turned around to peer
at the reflection of her butt, as if it had anything to do with the tank top
she was trying on.

      “He’s gone to the bathroom. He’ll be fine.”

I glanced at her and sighed, wishing my boobs were as big as
hers. Stevie made a face and pulled the tank top off her head and threw it on
the floor. “That makes me look fat.” She studied me and tilted her head. “You
get a new push up bra?” She stared at my chest and her eyebrows almost touched
the bridge of her nose.

      I looked down. “Oh no,” I whispered under my breath.
I’d made a wish for my boobs to be as big as Stevie’s. And since I was now
Sydney Grant, Super Witch. They were. Bigger. Much bigger. 

      “Uh. Yeah. New bra and some of those
FOAMIE things,
I slid them in to see if you’d
notice, ha! Listen Stevie, let’s go.” I tried not to stare at my boobs. Or poke
them to see what they felt like.

      “Since your birthday you’ve being acting really weird.”
She pulled on her own shirt and opened the change room door in a huff and shot
a glance at my chest. “And just so you know. Your boobs look totally fake.”

      I glanced down and hid a grin.

“I’m only telling you for your own good. You know, so you
don’t embarrass yourself in public. You should take them out.”

As if big boobs were her territory. Well they had been until
I became a wish making witch. I ignored her as we sped walk out of the dressing
room. I felt kind of off balance with the sudden weight on my upper chest.
Stevie tossed the crumpled up shirt she’d tried on to a bored looking woman in
a navy smock who smacked her gum. She stomped off ahead of me. “I have to go to
the washroom. I’ll meet you and Keith in the food court.”

“Whatever,” I called and watched her go.        

      Two cute looking boys with long hair and black t-shirts
walked by. The cutest one stopped walking and looked right at me and smiled.
“Hey!” he said.

      I looked around. The only other person in sight was the
old woman in the dressing room booth. “Uh, hi.” I said. I wondered if they were
talking to my new boobs.

       “You have a boyfriend?” he asked, all cocky and sure
of himself.

      “No,” I said as usual an award-winning
conversationalist.   

      Is this the way boys talked to girls with big boobs? If
so, why hadn’t I signed up for big boobs earlier? Wished for them anyhow. It
should have been my first wish.