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  “I think The Scarlet Letter is more her thing,” Kate suggested as she looked to see who else was in the cafeteria. She spotted Jessica, Tara, and Sherrie at their usual table, and waved.

  “Are those your friends?” Sasha asked.

  Kate nodded. “One set of them,” she said. “It’s a little complicated.”

  “Let’s sit with them,” Sasha suggested. “They look cool.”

  Kate hesitated. She knew Sasha wasn’t exactly the kind of girl Sherrie considered worthy of hanging out with. Kate already got enough grief from her for being friends with Annie and Cooper. Adding Sasha to the list might be the last straw. But she also had a feeling that Sasha could hold her own when she needed to, and she’d learned a lot about standing up to Sherrie in the past month, so she walked over to the table and sat down.

  “Hey, guys,” she said. “This is Sasha. She’s new in school, and I’m showing her around.”

  Almost immediately, Sherrie started in. “You’re new?” she said, as if she couldn’t believe that someone was walking around school without her knowing it.

  “We just moved here,” Sasha explained.

  “From LA,” added Kate, knowing that Sherrie would think a newcomer from Los Angeles was something to get excited about.

  “Where are you living now?” Sherrie continued, pretending not to be impressed.

  “We haven’t found a place yet,” Sasha answered. “My mother is really fussy about houses. We’re staying with some friends until she finds exactly the right thing.”

  “Aren’t you eating?” Jessica asked Sasha, noticing that the other girl didn’t have a lunch with her.

  “Nah,” Sasha explained. “I’m on a diet. I want to lose five pounds before swimsuit season.”

  “Oh, you should try one of these, then,” Jessica said, pointing to the pile of potato chips she’d spread out on her napkin. “Totally fat-free. I’m sure they’re made out of chemicals that would pickle lab rats, but who cares? They taste great.”

  “Thanks,” said Sasha, taking a handful of chips and eating them eagerly.

  Sherrie took a bite of the fruit salad on her tray. “Who wants to hear the latest gossip?” she asked coyly.

  “Like you have to ask?” Tara retorted.

  “Sherrie is the complete source for all the news at Beecher Falls High School,” Kate explained to Sasha. “She knows what’s happening before it even happens.”

  “This time I just might,” Sherrie said smugly. “Word is that Mark Davis is going to dump Kathy Lewis.”

  “No way!” said Tara, the cupcake in her hand frozen on its way to her mouth.

  “But why?” asked Kate, interested despite herself. “They’ve been going out since forever.”

  “Apparently, Mark found a love note that Kathy wrote to someone else,” Sherrie said.

  “Who?” asked Jessica, wide-eyed.

  “That part I don’t know,” Sherrie admitted. “Yet. But give me a couple of hours.”

  “Wow,” said Sasha. “You really do know it all. I could have used you last night. I was trying to get the story on this guy I met. A real cutie. But he was with this girl, and I couldn’t figure out whether they were together or what. You saw him, Kate. That guy with the far-out eyes.”

  “Kate saw him?” Sherrie said.

  “Yeah,” Sasha answered. “We were both at this rit—”

  “At this party,” Kate said, suddenly interrupting. “Sasha and I were at the same party. That’s how we met.”

  “You didn’t tell us about a party,” Tara said accusingly.

  “It was probably something her other friends were involved in,” said Sherrie.

  “You mean Annie and Cooper?” Sasha said. “Oh, yeah, they were there too. It was great.”

  “I’m sure it was,” said Sherrie, staring hard at Kate.

  “It was no big deal,” Kate said hurriedly. “Just this little thing that Annie’s aunt threw together.”

  “Whatever,” said Sherrie. “So, Sasha, tell us about this guy.”

  Sasha started describing Tyler to the other girls, starting with his black hair and moving on to his clothes and even his shoes. As she talked, Kate tried to think. It hadn’t occurred to her that Sasha might say anything about the ritual. So far Kate had managed to keep all of her Wiccan activities away from the prying eyes of her friends. She would have to make sure that Sasha knew the topic was off-limits before she said something that got Kate into trouble.

  Part of Kate was also jealous that Sasha had noticed Tyler too. She’d been careful not to mention him, even to Annie and Cooper. They were always giving her a hard time about Scott, and she didn’t want them to think she was totally boy crazy. Besides, it wasn’t like she wanted to go out with the guy or anything. She just thought he was cute. Clearly, so did Sasha.

  “Oh, and he had the best smile,” she was saying when Kate returned to the conversation.

  “Sounds dreamy,” Tara said. “Unlike the trolls who go to this school.”

  “I don’t know,” Sasha said. “I think Kate’s man is pretty studly.”

  “Yes, our little Kate managed to land quite a fine one,” Jessica said. “We’re very proud of her.”

  “We still don’t know quite how she did it,” Sherrie said, never content to let anyone else get the attention.

  “Maybe she cast a spell on him,” Sasha suggested, helping herself to more of Jessica’s potato chips.

  “Didn’t you want me to show you the library?” Kate said to Sasha, trying to create a diversion. She didn’t want Sasha to mention spells or rituals or witchcraft in any form before she could talk to her.

  Sasha looked confused. “I don’t think—“ she began. Then she saw the intense look on Kate’s face. “Oh, right. Do you want to do that now?”

  “I think it would be a good idea,” Kate said, getting up. “We have a few minutes before the next class.”

  Sasha stood to follow Kate. “It was nice meeting you guys,” she said. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

  The others said good-bye, and Kate and Sasha walked out of the cafeteria. As soon as they were in the hallway, Kate started talking.

  “It might be better if you didn’t mention anything to Sherrie, Tara, and Jessica about the party we went to last night,” she said.

  “You mean the ritual?” said Sasha.

  Kate looked around, making sure that no one had heard her. “Yes,” she said. “That. They don’t know anything about that kind of thing. Most important, they don’t know that I know anything about it.”

  “Got it,” said Sasha. “You’re still in the broom closet.”

  “What?” said Kate.

  “The broom closet,” Sasha repeated. “You haven’t told anyone that you’re a—you know—witch.” She whispered the last word, then laughed.

  “But I’m not,” said Kate.

  Sasha stopped and looked at her in surprise. “You mean you just happen to go to Wiccan rituals and hang out with witches?” she said.

  Kate sighed. “It’s a long story,” she said.

  “I have time,” Sasha responded.

  “Not here,” said Kate. “Come on.”

  She led Sasha down the hall and opened the door that led to the school basement. The practice rooms for the music students were down there, and Kate knew that it would be quiet. She found an empty room and drew Sasha inside, shutting the door behind them.

  “Here’s the deal,” she said. “About six weeks ago I found this book of spells in the library. I didn’t know what it was. Just for fun, I tried one. It worked a little too well, and I needed some help stopping it. That’s where Annie and Cooper came in. They had checked the book out, too, so I asked them to work with me to reverse my spell. We managed to do it, but it was really rough for a while. After it was all over, we agreed to keep studying witchcraft.”

  “I get it,” said Sasha. “And you were at the ritual because you read about it somewhere.”

  “Right,” said Kate. “Annie and Coo
per got a flyer at Crones’ Circle.”

  “Now it makes sense,” said Sasha. “I thought the three of you were some kind of coven or something.”

  “Hardly,” Kate said. “The spells we’ve done haven’t exactly been great successes. Scott’s the only good thing that came from any of it.”

  “So you did cast a spell on him!” Sasha crowed in delight.

  “At first I did,” Kate admitted. “But he stuck around even when it was over, so there had to have been more to it than that. At least I hope there was.”

  “Who cares?” said Sasha. “The point is, you got what you wanted, right? That’s what this stuff is all about.”

  Kate wasn’t sure she agreed with Sasha, but she didn’t say anything. It wasn’t the time to get into a philosophical discussion about magic.

  “We don’t talk about Wicca at school,” she said, trying to get to the main point of the conversation. “I don’t think people here really get it, and we don’t want to get into any trouble.”

  “That’s cool,” Sasha said. “No witch talk in front of the other kiddies. But you’ve got to do me a favor in return.”

  “What’s that?” Kate asked.

  “Tell me about that boyfriend spell,” Sasha said. “It sounds like a doozy.”

  Kate laughed. “Later,” she said. “Right now we have to get to class. Do you know where you’re going?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got it down now,” Sasha said, hoisting her bag over her shoulder. As she did, Kate realized that Sasha had been carrying the same bag around all day. She also still had on her coat.

  “Don’t you want to put any of that in your locker?” she asked. “It looks heavy, and you must be really hot in that coat.”

  “It’s okay,” Sasha said. “I like keeping it all with me. You never know what you might need.”

  They left the practice room and walked back upstairs, parting at a corner in the corridor as Kate headed for her history class.

  “Let me know if you want to walk home after school,” Kate said. “Which direction do you go?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Sasha said. “I’m meeting my mom for some shopping. I’ll catch you later.”

  “Okay,” Kate said, turning and walking to class. She was glad that Sasha was turning out to be pretty nice after all. It just goes to show, she thought to herself, you can’t always judge people on first impressions.

  Chapter 5

  The back room at Crones’ Circle was filled with people on Tuesday night. Some were sitting on the old purple velvet sofa. Some were seated in folding chairs. Still others were sitting cross-legged on cushions that Archer was dragging out of a storage room.

  “I didn’t know there would be so many people here,” Annie said to Kate as they walked in.

  “Hey, guys,” Archer said, noticing them standing in the doorway. “Grab some cushions and join the fun.”

  “Thanks,” Kate said as Archer gave her a hug. She was particularly fond of the wiry, talkative woman with the quick wit. Archer had given Kate some good advice, along with a surprisingly accurate Tarot card reading, when Kate was trying to figure out what to do about her friendship with Annie and Cooper.

  “Are you teaching the class?” Cooper asked, taking a cushion and finding an open spot on the floor.

  “No,” said Archer. “Rowan, from the Coven of the Green Wood, is doing this one. We just provide the space.”

  Archer went to greet some other people, and Kate, Cooper, Annie, and Sasha sat down. Almost immediately, a fat gray cat padded over and jumped into Cooper’s lap.

  “Simeon,” Cooper said, scratching the cat behind the ears as it started to purr and knead her with its paws. “Nice to see you.”

  “This place is great,” Sasha said, looking around. “It’s even got its own cat.”

  Kate looked around the room to see who else had come for the first class. She was a little worried that she might see someone who knew her or knew her family, and she’d already worked out a story to tell anyone who might wonder what she was doing there. She was going to say that she was doing research for a school project. She’d told her parents that she was going to a study group for chem class. Having to make up stories bothered her, but she knew she couldn’t tell them where she was really going.

  But she didn’t recognize any of the dozen or so people crowded into the small room. Most of them seemed to be students from Jasper College, judging by the sweatshirts they wore and the backpacks they carried with the college logo on them. There was one woman who had to be at least seventy, and there were a couple of men sitting together on the couch. Kate breathed a sigh of relief that no one looked familiar to her.

  A woman came into the room and walked to the front. It took Kate a moment to realize that it was Rowan. She was dressed in jeans and a black turtleneck, and without the white robe and garland of flowers Kate almost didn’t recognize her.

  “Good evening,” she said, and the various conversations in the room stopped. “Welcome to the first class in our Exploring Witchcraft series. My name is Rowan, and I’ll be one of the people leading the discussions. Some of you I’ve seen before, and some of you are new faces. I hope that by the end of the class I’ll know all of you a little better. Now, just to get an idea of where people are, can I get a show of hands from people who have any experience practicing witchcraft.”

  About half the class raised their hands, including Annie, Cooper, and Sasha. Kate hesitated for a moment, then raised hers as well. Outside of rituals and talking to Archer, Sophia, and the other women at the bookstore, she’d never publicly associated herself with Wicca. She felt a little thrill of excitement as she saw that the people who weren’t raising their hands were looking at her and the others curiously.

  “Good,” said Rowan. “That gives me a better idea of where to begin. Now, before we start, I want to explain how the course works. We’ll have three classes. On the fourth Tuesday, we’ll be performing a dedication ritual. Those of you who would like to dedicate yourselves to studying Wicca more seriously can participate.”

  “You mean we’d become witches?” Sasha asked.

  “No,” Rowan explained. “It takes a little more than three or four weeks of studying before you know enough to decide whether or not you want to devote yourself to a life in witchcraft. This is simply a dedication ceremony. You would agree to spend a year and a day living a Wiccan life and studying the Craft in greater detail. We’ll actually be holding weekly meetings for those who are interested. At the end of that year and a day, you could decide to become witches if you wanted to.”

  “What if we don’t want to take part in the ceremony?” asked a woman sitting to Kate’s left. “Should we not take the class?”

  “Oh, no,” said Rowan. “Anyone can take the class. If you don’t want to be part of the dedication ritual, that’s fine. It’s just an option for those who want to.”

  The woman nodded. Rowan waited to see if anyone else had questions. When no one spoke, she continued.

  “Tonight we’re going to talk about what witchcraft is and isn’t,” she said. “Why don’t we start with the word witch itself. Does anyone know what it means?”

  “Doesn’t it mean a wise person?” asked one of the men on the couch.

  Rowan nodded. “That’s one of the meanings. There are several origins for the word. One is from the Old English word wicca or wicce, which referred to men or women who practiced divination and had other skills thought to be somehow supernatural. These skills might have been as simple as knowing how to use herbs to heal people, which in those times might indeed have seemed supernatural. There’s also the word witta, which meant a sage or an adviser. The word witch probably has its beginnings in those words.”

  “What about warlocks?” someone asked Rowan. “Isn’t that what male witches are called?”

  Rowan smiled. “A lot of people think that,” she said. “But male witches are witches, just like female ones are. The word warlock actually means ‘traitor’ or ‘one
who breaks an oath.’ The term was applied derogatorily to men accused of witchcraft because people said that they had turned away from God. But real witches never use that term.”

  There was something Kate had been confused about ever since doing her school paper on witchcraft. She raised her hand and waited for Rowan to acknowledge her. “I know witchcraft is really old,” she said. “But did witches way back when really do things the way people do them today? Did they worship a goddess and all of that?”

  “You’ve just asked the million-dollar question,” Rowan said. “This is the thing that many, many people get hung up on—what exactly is witchcraft, and where did it come from? That’s a long story, but I’ll try to give you the short version. Many people will try to tell you that the witchcraft practiced today has been handed down from generation to generation, and that the rituals and chants and invocations we use today are ancient secrets practiced by our ancestors.”

  “You mean they aren’t?” Cooper said.

  Rowan shrugged. “Who’s to say?” she answered. “Probably some of them have some basis in ancient rituals. But the truth is that what we call witchcraft today is a mixture of all kinds of things. Some of it comes from ancient fertility rites. Some of it is based on old legends and myths. And some of it we’ve just made up in the last fifty years.”

  “Doesn’t that mean that witchcraft isn’t real?” said the old woman seated in one of the armchairs. “I mean, if it’s all made up, what holds it together?”

  “Witchcraft is a religion,” Rowan said. “But it isn’t a religion centered around one particular book, like the Torah or the Koran, or around one particular figure, like Jesus or the Buddha. That’s what confuses a lot of people. Witchcraft is a pagan religion, meaning that it doesn’t focus on only one god or goddess. It’s a religion based on rituals and festivals practiced by people who lived in close communion with nature. But it is also a changing religion. People bring to it the various rituals and beliefs of their respective cultures. Unlike Christianity and Judaism, which have established sets of rules and basic beliefs, witchcraft has very few set beliefs. Different witches practice it differently. Some do magic. Others don’t. Some worship particular gods and goddesses. Others don’t worship any at all.”