Wiccan cool, p.1
Wiccan Cool, page 1
Dedication
To Greg, Brighton, Destini, Mom, Sheryl, Trena, Becky and all the cool kids everywhere
Chapter One
Rhiannon’s scalp tingled as she practically melted beneath the hot lights on the Crystal Lake gymnasium stage. Her English teacher, Mr. Lanyard, insisted that all of the freshmen would be getting their community service credits, whether they wanted them or not.
Dressed like Little Bo Beep, her red hair twisted in tight ringlets—more Orphan Annie than Bo Peep, in her humble, unheard opinion—Rhee cringed as she heard the whir of her mother’s old-fashioned camera. Glancing toward the front row, she saw Starla happily snapping pictures. Tanya, her best friend in Las Vegas, would die laughing once she saw photos of Rhee in freaking pantaloons and a huge white apron that would never make the fashion guide in CosmoGirl. To make things worse, she was starting to sweat. Ew.
“Baa, baa, black sheep have you any wool…”
Rhee rolled her eyes as Corey, dressed just as ridiculously as she was, sang his heart out. Unfortunately, even that slight movement was enough to make her large white mobcap fall down over her forehead, blinding her just when she needed to take a few steps forward.
Shoving it back with the hand that held her crooked staff, she bonked herself in the eye and warbled, “Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.”
Yeah, yeah, she knew what the crowd was thinking even without reading their collective minds. Don’t quit your day job. The snickering in the gym did nothing for her self-confidence.
If this spring play didn’t bring in enough money for new books and toys in the pediatric wing of Tilton Hospital, she was going to cry. One thing for sure, she was never going to do this again. She was more a “behind the scenes” kind of girl.
Jared, in a rich farmer’s costume—of course—took her by the elbow and stopped her from falling off the stage.
“Thanks,” she muttered.
The past four months, even though they’d broken up in December, had been filled with flirtatious looks, lots of hot eye contact and a few moments of almost picking up the phone to call. They’d even started “accidentally” meeting at the clearing on Sundays. She’d been tempted to do a love spell…thank the Goddess she’d talked herself out of that très bad idea.
Still, the press of his fingers on her bare skin was enough to make her melt in a much more exciting way than hot stage lights.
Neither one of them had dated anyone else since December.
Janet, Jared’s twin, pranced out on the stage in a fabulous dairymaid costume. Rhee grudgingly noticed that Janet sang beautifully and danced like a professional. Was there anything that Janet couldn’t do?
Looking down, Rhee saw the pink ribbons on Janet’s left slipper slide free. Janet, en pointe, twirled and the satin ribbon trailed behind like a pink tripwire. Jared stood next to her, unaware that his sister was in danger of slipping and breaking her slender neck, or at least spraining an ankle. Rhee had a split second to make a decision—let Janet fall and enjoy the brief seconds of her nemesis’s humiliation, or do the right thing and somehow save her from the embarrassment.
If she was a good person, Rhee told herself, she wouldn’t have to even think about doing the right thing.
Janet whirled and dipped and the ribbon tangled beneath the slippery sole of her ballet slipper. Her voice quavered as she realized the problem.
Too late to save Janet from falling, Rhee concentrated on the bale of hay next to where the blond star stumbled. Afraid to call attention to what she was doing, Rhiannon faced the audience while psychically inching the soft hay so that at least when Janet fell, she’d land on something besides the worn wooden floor.
She didn’t want Janet actually hurt.
Janet’s feet went up in the air, she was cut off mid-note and it brought the house down.
Jared immediately went to help his sister, while Corey sang louder and with more flare to Janet’s flailing feet. Melody laughed out loud from her spot on the sidelines and Rhiannon saw Bonnie cover her mouth with her white-gloved hand.
Mr. Lanyard then beckoned Rhee offstage, and pushed Bonnie out beneath the hot lights. Bonnie had a stuffed spider connected by wires to her shoulder that bounced over her head as she walked, and in her right hand she carried a bowl of sticky fake porridge.
Rhee caught a glimpse of the congealed goo and shivered with disgust.
“Little Miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey…” Bonnie swayed her hips and pretended not to see the dangling spider over her shoulder as the kids in the crowd howled with laughter.
“Could this possibly be any more lame?” Melody asked with a grin.
“Only if you were in it.” Janet smirked as she walked by, her nose in the air.
“Oh, and this coming from the girl who just showed most of Crystal Lake her bloomers?” Melody rolled her eyes and went back to checking the lights, which was the job she took after she’d lost the role of dairymaid—to Janet.
All three of them looked out to the stage as hilarious laughter from the audience suddenly drowned out the makeshift actors. “Oh no,” Rhee said, afraid to look.
“Poor Bonnie!” Melody clapped both hands over her eyes, but peeked through her fingers.
Bonnie’s spider had gotten stuck on the edge of the farmhouse. She was tugging. The stuffed spider was caught. The more Bonnie pulled, the more the spider stretched like silly putty. The bowl of curds and whey was tipping over, spilling an icky mess down on the stage. With one last, huge heave, Bonnie yanked on the wire that connected the spider to her shoulder. The spider split in half, sending fluffy stuffing floating through the air and Bonnie sliding across the wood floor on the goo from the bowl.
And right over the edge to the first row seats.
“She just made me look good,” Janet informed whoever would listen above the screams of surprise.
Mr. Lanyard put his hand over his heart. “Never again. Nope. In all the years I’ve been a teacher, this has been the worst production of Mother Goose I’ve ever done. In fact, retirement sounds wonderful. I’m only forty. Maybe I could get a job at the auto repair shop. No kids there…”
He walked off toward the steps, prepared to help Bonnie back on the stage. Rhee would have felt sorry for him if she believed he was serious about quitting. He wasn’t though. Mr. Lanyard just liked to mumble when he got nervous. She picked up the vibe, even now, that he loved his job.
Jared, relief in his voice, said, “Bonnie looks okay.”
“The show must go on!” Janet shouted, arm in arm with Felicity and Mutt-or-Jeff, one of the two friends of Janet’s that Rhee could never tell apart. She wondered where the odd one out was—normally the two were as inseparable as Siamese Twins.
“Whatever.” Melody crossed her arms. “You’re so selfish, you just want to make sure you get your last part on stage.”
“Somebody has to save this act. You and your loser friends are ruining this production.” Felicity narrowed her eyes, swinging her gaze between Melody and Rhiannon. “You all suck.”
“Hey.” Rhee ignored her own irritation and tried to run interference before Mr. Lanyard had a real heart attack. “Back off. Go out there and do your ‘pretty maids all in a row’ and try not to trip each other up. One of you—” Rhiannon tapped her lip, “—I’m not saying which one, is off-beat by at least two seconds during the dance.”
Janet immediately glared at her two pals. “You better not be.”
“You’re the one who just fell,” Felicity shot back.
“You’re supposed to be out there already.” Melody clucked her tongue and flickered the lights.
Janet pulled the other two girls with her out onto the stage and Jared laughed softly.
“Way to go, Rhiannon, get them fighting amongst themselves so they leave your friends alone.”
Rhee lifted one corner of her apron and curtsied dramatically. “Better than having her get Melody so mad she socks your sister in the nose.”
Jared nodded, his lips twitching as he fought a smile. Caleb, who had been listening to the conversation, looked out at the three “pretty maids” and shrugged. “It’s true though, Felicity is off.”
Grinning, Rhee turned her face away from Caleb. It was no secret that he had zero residual affection for his ex-girlfriend.
Bonnie and Corey came backstage, Bonnie’s cheeks still red from embarrassment. “I can’t believe I just squished Doctor Goodman’s wife.”
“It’s okay, darlin’,” Corey said with a wink. “She has plenty of cushion. I’m surprised you didn’t bounce.”
After what seemed like forever, the play was finally over. Rhiannon climbed into her parents’ van, a burgundy-colored, wheeled advertisement for her mom’s New Age shop, Celestial Beginnings. It used to embarrass her, but after the witch hunt last December, she was so over it. If her mom wanted to ride a broom around town, then that was cool with her.
Considering that the shop was turning a profit, it was obvious that not everyone in Crystal Lake held a grudge against the Godfreys.
Corey piled into the very backseat after Bonnie. “Thanks for the ride to Doyle’s, Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey.”
“You’re welcome.” Starla turned from the front passenger seat so she could wave at Bonnie. “Merry meet.”
Rhee poked her dad in the shoulder and giggled. “The Roberts are picking up the bill for the ice cream party, so get something big. Like a banana split.”
“I’m getting a deluxe brownie sundae and a chocolate soda.” Corey held his hand up for a high five, but Bonn
Miles Godfrey turned around from the driver’s seat, an exaggerated look of surprise on his face. “And you think you can eat all of that?”
Her mom patted Miles on the arm. “Honey, teenage boys can eat their weight in junk food. But once they reach post adolescence, they need to relearn positive eating habits, since it can block their chakra.”
Rhiannon blew out an irritated breath. You just couldn’t take the Wicca out of Starla Godfrey.
“I’ll stick with frozen yogurt.” Bonnie chewed her lower lip. “I want to fit into my prom dress.”
Prom. That was the absolute last thing Rhee wanted to think about, since she didn’t have even a ghost of a date. None of the boys in her class had asked her. Probably because they all remembered the last dance she was at, where the disco ball had fallen from the ceiling and almost crushed Janet to smithereens. Janet had created rumors that Rhee was a witch, even though Rhiannon had just been trying to save her from being a permanent piece of the gym floor. Sighing, Rhiannon leaned across the seat to shut the sliding passenger door when she heard a shout. Poking her head out, she saw Jared waving his arms and jogging toward her.
“Hey!” he called. “You have room for one more?”
Her stomach clenched. Jared looked really cute in jeans and a T-shirt—although he hadn’t looked that ridiculous in his costume. His blond hair was wavy and touched his shoulders. His smile, with the dimples on either side, never failed to jump-start her heart. Which was totally stupid, since he’d broken up with her four months ago for being too different.
The fact that she still liked him meant that she pretty much had bad taste in guys.
Nothing had changed since the fiasco in December. Rhee was still psychic, although none of her friends knew it, and a fledgling Wiccan, which Jared didn’t understand, and his family hated her. All the same stuff that made them break up then was still an issue now.
So why was she so drawn to him, of all the boys in Crystal Lake? Because she knew she couldn’t have him? And it was obvious that he really liked her too. Maybe…maybe things could work out.
Hoping her face didn’t give away too much, she smiled and said, “Sure. Did your ride leave without you?”
He shrugged. “Yeah.”
Uh-huh. Without reading his thoughts, she sensed that he’d sent them on without him. Why? Rhee wished she could trust her instincts around Jared, but he messed with her emotional radar.
“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey,” Jared said. “Bonnie and Corey, hey, where’s Melody?”
Rhiannon scooted closer to the window. “She’s riding with her mom. I guess the ice cream parlor is closer to the reservation, and they’re staying the weekend out there with her grandma.”
Jared made himself comfortable, brushing her arm as he buckled his seatbelt. “Yeah, Doyle’s is kinda far out there, but worth it. Have you been before?”
“Nope.” It seemed that the farther she scooched, the closer Jared came, and now she had nowhere to go. He was completely invading her space. Too bad she liked it.
“The ice cream is all handmade, and the parlor is shaped like a milk bottle,” Bonnie said.
Starla turned around from the front seat. “A milk bottle?”
“About a hundred years ago, it was a dairy farm,” Jared explained. “The milk bottle is all that’s left of a huge spread. The Doyles owned it.”
For no explainable reason, chills dotted Rhiannon’s arms. “Do they still own it?” In Crystal Lake, being able to trace your ancestors back to the first family homestead was no big deal.
Jared shook his head, and the subtle smell of his cologne teased her nose. “Nope, they just disappeared one day—no forwarding address, nothing.”
Rhee’s mouth went dry and she pressed her fingers to her throat. “What happened to them?”
“The Indians scalped ’em for taking their land.” Corey smacked the back of the seat and Rhee jumped so high she almost bumped her head on the roof of the van.
Laughing, Bonnie elbowed Corey in the ribs. “Stop. Rhee, this is something you’ll get a kick out of—supposedly the Doyle farm is haunted.”
“My story is scarier,” Corey said.
“The Indians quit scalping settlers before the turn of the twentieth century.” Bonnie lifted her chin. “My history teacher said that the Doyles probably just snuck out in the dead of night to skip paying for the property. Headed back to Germany on a ship or something.”
“Oh yeah.” Corey snorted. “’Cause there’s so many boats leaving rural Crystal Lake. Don’t forget we have to bribe the Greyhound bus system to make a stop.”
Scowling, Bonnie answered, “It’s a more sensible theory than being scalped.”
Rhiannon held up her hands to stop an argument. Bonnie and Corey were super-cute together, but sometimes they bickered like they’d been together forever. “We’re going to a haunted ice cream parlor? You didn’t think to tell me this before, Bon?”
Bonnie blushed. “I forgot.”
Rhee rolled her eyes. “You know I have a thing for ghost stories.” And ghosts.
Jared glanced at Rhiannon and lowered his voice. “Wanna know something really creepy? We have some of the Doyles’ old furniture in our house.”
“No way.” Corey drummed his hands excitedly against the back of the seat.
“Why?” Rhee asked. “How did you get it?”
Jared’s expression turned sheepish. “Well, you know that my great-great-grandfather, Abediah Roberts, founded Crystal Lake—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Corey interrupted.
“Well, he sold the Doyles the land, and when they…disappeared…he took the furniture they left against what he claimed the family still owed him.” Jared shrugged, as if embarrassed by his ancestor’s greed. If only the rest of the Roberts were as awesome and conscientious as Jared, Rhee thought with a sigh.
She nudged Jared with her arm, and was hit with a sudden vision of a single candle burning in what seemed like a tower. Loneliness drenched her like a warm downpour.
Rhee coughed and her mom pressed an opened water bottle into Rhee’s hand. “Here honey. Are you okay?”
Looking up, Rhiannon met her mom’s blue eyes, eyes that were just like hers. Was she okay? Rhee was far from all right, and ten miles away from normal or okay. Since moving to Crystal Lake she’d met more ghosts than a scientific-minded psychic prodigy should have to.
Starla curled her lips in distaste. “Again with the goats?”
Her dad banged his fist against the steering wheel. “I know it’s wrong, but I’m really starting to hate goats.”
Chapter Two
“Goats?” Jared’s forehead scrunched together in confusion.
Rhee drained half the water from the bottle then offered the rest to Jared. He shook his head, so she put the cap on before passing the bottle back to her mom. “Uh…goats.” The family euphemism for ghosts. “My family’s weird. Duh.”
“Is it a vegetarian thing?” Bonnie asked.
“Hmm.” Rhee’s answer was deliberately non-committal and she quickly changed the subject. “How much longer until we get there?”
Jared looked out the window, and Rhee followed his gaze. Nothing to see but acres and acres of fenced pasture, the landscape occasionally dotted with a black and white cow.
“Maybe fifteen minutes,” Jared said. “Plenty of time for me to tell you about the trunks.”
“What trunks?” Rhee had a bad feeling that Jared’s trunks were going to have something to do with the despair in her vision. She mentally prepared herself and put up psychic shields so that she couldn’t be drawn into the vision without preparation.
“The Doyles’ trunks. My grandpa says that if Old Doyle would have been a cabinetmaker instead of a dairy farmer, he might have been successful. I mean, these things don’t have nails or anything. Dad says they could probably hold water.”
“What do you use them for?” Rhee tensed as she waited for the answer.
“Mom uses one of the trunks for sheets, and the other one is in the guest bedroom.”
“Were the trunks empty when Abediah brought them from the Doyles’ farm?” Rhee’s fingers curled into fists as she rested her hands on her knees. She didn’t understand why she was feeling what she was, but for now she had no choice but to go with the flow.
