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Author's Note: Here's Ch.5, I got a lot of time to write this one yesterday. I skip a day or two in this chapter, starting with Kelly's first day of school. I'd like to thank djkauf and Indy for the magical editing and everyone for enjoying this universe :)

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FIVE:

I took a deep breath as I stood in front of Ravencrest High. I let it out slowly, hitching my purple backpack higher up my shoulder. I was completely screwed; the universe was officially conspiring against me. I wasn’t supposed to be going to school. This was supposed to be my little vacation, a time for me to lie around like a bum and hope that my grandmother didn’t mind. Apparently, she did mind and she had plans. I’m not sure they involved me going to school per se but I’m sure they didn’t involve me being an extended house guest. None of us could have foreseen the Black Crosses making a move like that though. It got everyone scared. After calling my grandmother while I was apparently asleep on the plane, my parents decided to go underground.

They refused to tell anyone where. They also seemed to keep it vague as to when they might be resurfacing. So in the meantime I was stuck in Ravencrest. That’s when Mom and Dad decided it might be best if I tried to make it as normal as possible. So that’s where school came in. Usually a transfer like this took weeks but my grandmother had a lot of pull. Last night after our little shopping excursion---a trip I won’t bore you with---I was officially enrolled as a new student. It was kind of a shock actually. I’m not sure what kind of pull the old woman had but whatever it was, it was amazing.

So here, I was now---two days after arriving in this hole---and already my life was more miserable than when I got here.

The miserableness started as soon as my grandmother told me I was going to school. From there I barely had enough time to complain before she was whisking me off shopping. We took a taxi into town, making a whirlwind trip through the shops she thought I needed to go too. Of course, most of the sales ladies tried to direct me toward the Miss section. After the third store, I got tired of correcting them. Not that I let them pick out girls clothes for me. Sadly, in some places I had little choice. I always had problems with clothes: I was too big for clothes meant for younger boys and the clothes meant for guys my age didn’t quite fit right. So some of my stuff ended up being girls whether I wanted it to or not. Jeans were the real pain in the ass. Though guys, at my size they might as well been girl’s.

After shopping, it was errands. I’m not even sure where we went because there were so many places. My grandmother had a lot to do in town apparently. She went here and there. By the time we were done, it was nearly dinnertime. When we got back home, Mary had finally made her presence known. We grunted a few words to one another before disappearing to our respective rooms. I wasn’t really in the mood to chat.

Sunday---yesterday---I got to be slightly lazy. I did finally manage to get a hold of my sister, though. I gave her the cliff notes version of what happened. I think she was a bit peeved that Mom hadn’t called her and told her firsthand. Jess got like that sometimes---it didn’t matter the situation, she always tried to make it about her. After talking to my sister, I managed to get a hold of Tommy. He was more confused than anything. I’m not sure what he remembered, sometimes memory spells didn’t take---but he seemed to think that he somehow heroically saved me from George. I let him think it because it was technically the truth. After talking with him for a bit, I tried Mom again. Her phone was either shut off or they were someplace that had no service. Dad’s phone was the same and when I tried Felix, all I got was his voice mail. So clearly, my parents were really off the grid at the moment, it wouldn’t be the first time. We used to do it for months but never before was it because someone was trying to kill us. It worried me a bit---not being able to get in touch with them.

The rest of Sunday was pretty dull.

Which led me today, Monday.

First Day of School for me.

I took the stone steps leading into the school two at a time, scaling them quickly enough. As soon as I was through the doors, I followed the main hall to the office at the end of it. Yesterday afternoon, the school sent over a packet of information, including a letter from the Vice Principal. I was supposed to report to him as soon as I arrived. I made my way into the office. The elderly secretary by the door looked up from her computer and smiled at me.

“How can I help you sweetheart?” she asked in a sweet and somewhat condescending tone.

“I’m Kelly Daniels” I said, “I’m here to see a Mr. McClintock?”

The woman smiled. “I’m Mrs. Lee; it’s a pleasure to meet you Kelly. Why don’t you take a seat over there and I’ll tell Mr. McClintock you’re here to see him.”

I looked over to three green plastic chairs against the wall. They were just like the chairs in the office at my own school. I couldn’t help but wonder if the schools of the world got a discount on them. I nodded to Mrs. Lee and took a seat. I set my pack in the empty seat next to me, looking around the room. It looked a lot like my school office, complete with large glass windows and this funky smell----something that reminded me of too much pine sol. My looking around ended up with myself. I was wearing a pair of my new jeans, which were a bit tighter on me than I would have liked. None of the stores had my size so I had to go with the next size below it. They didn’t look all that bad but they didn’t help with the whole gender confusion thing----the jeans made me look more like a girl.

My hoodie didn’t help either. It sucked that my school colors were purple and gray. It also sucked that they didn’t make the gray hoodies in my size so I was stuck buying a purple one. I thought about buying a new hoodie while out shopping but there was something about my old one that made me feel safe. I guess it was because it was the only piece of my wardrobe that still belonged to me. Even my sneakers were new.

“Are you new in town?” asked Mrs. Lee.

“Kind of. My parents are anthropologists. They went to Africa this time but instead of bringing me along like usual they decided to send me here with my grandmother.”

She smiled. “So what do you think of our little town so far?”

I shrugged. “Its nice enough but I’d prefer to be in Africa.”

Hey, she asked. I’m only telling her what I thought. She’s just lucky that I wasn’t being brutally honest and I told her what I really thought of Ravencrest.

She made a tut sound. “A nice pretty thing like yourself shouldn’t be rolling around in the mud over there. I think your parents did the proper thing sending you here.”

And there it was. I should have known as soon as she called my sweetheart earlier. It was the damn jeans; I should have worn my old ones. I wanted to wear them in fact but my grandmother wouldn’t allow it. They were my favorite jeans so they were a little worn, one of knees was starting to get a nice hole and the denim was really faded. At least they weren’t tight and they definitely didn’t make me look more like a girl.

I opened my mouth to correct her but didn’t get a chance because Mr. McClintock chose that time to leave his office. I sized him up quickly. Thin and bald, sorta like I expected a vice principal to be. He opened a manila folder in hands before looking at me.

“Kelly I assume?” he asked, I nodded. “C’mon in my office. You and I can talk there.”

I stood up, grabbed my pack and followed him.

His office was ordinary, save for the fox statue on his desk. I fixated on it as he pointed me to the seat across from his desk. I dropped comfortably into the soft leather. It was kind of nice actually, much better than the hard plastic of the other chair. McClintock took a seat behind the desk. There was something off about him, something that screamed Unseen to me. I’d met a lot of them in my time; Mom and Dad were friends with several. Looking at him, I could tell he wasn’t a witch---his last name wasn’t one of the ones that Mom ever mentioned. He wasn’t the usual sort we encountered either. I looked around the office again, there were foxes everywhere. If I had to guess, I’d say some kind of Were, possibly a fox.

I’d only met a few Weres and they all seemed pretty nice. A little standoffish but they weren’t the vicious monsters that movies made them out to be.

“Your principal at your old school faxed your transcripts over yesterday. I spent last night looking them over. You seem to be a very bright student but you’re not very active. You have no extracurriculars?”

I nodded. “There was a computer club I was a member of for a bit but they shut it down because there weren’t enough members.”

“I see that here.” He closed the folder. “I talked in length with your grandmother last night as well. She filled me on your situation and I can assure you that this school is a very safe environment for Unseen. We have quite a few Unseen students attending as a matter of fact. So you won’t have to feel out of place here.”

I didn’t feel out of place---well not because I was Unseen. I felt out of place because I didn’t belong here, I belonged with my parents.
He started typing away at his desk. “I tried to get you a schedule that fit the same classes you had back in California, unfortunately your previous school had a different curriculum than ours.” The printer behind him buzzed to life.

The sheet fully printed out about thirty seconds later. He spun in his chair to grab it then back around to give it to me. I glanced at it quickly, sad to see my computer science class no longer available. Ravencrest truly was in the Dark Ages.

Mr. McClintock quickly went on to explain everything that his fine school had to offer. He droned on quite some time about it. I caught myself looking at the wall clock more than once. He was extremely proud of his little school. He talked like he was praising a child or something---I suppose it was true in a way. Looking around the room, I had noticed that he had no family portraits of any kind. So it was possible he was a bachelor so this place would be like a family to him. I’m not sure if I felt sad for him or not. He finally finished, though.

“I’ve got someone who shows a lot of my new students around school,” he said to end his little speech. He pressed the button on his intercom. “Kathleen, can you send her in please?”

A moment or two later, the door opened up. I spun around and saw a girl standing there. She was one of those quiet types, short brown hair, pink sweater, grey skirt. She looked like the kind of girl that would work in the office. I didn’t want to say brown noser because that was cruel but she definitely didn’t look like a rule breaker either. She was looking at the ground when she entered---I was surprised that she didn’t trip. When she finally looked up, she caught sight of me.
She gave me a weak smile before turning her attention to Mr. McClintock.

“Maggie this is Kelly, I’d like you to show her to her classes today.”

Shit. Another one.

“Him, sir” I said quickly, hoping to nip it in the bud as early as possible.

“Him, what?” asked the VP, clearly confused.

I sighed. “Never mind.”

Mr. McClintock smiled. “I’ll leave you two to it then.”

I took that as an invitation to leave, which of course it was. I grabbed my back and let Maggie lead me out of the office. We walked together through the main office---smiling to Mrs. Lee as we walked by.

“Good bye girls” she said as we left.

I’m never wearing these jeans again. We walked down the hall in silence for a while. I’d gotten to school early so as to meet with Mr. McClintock as it said to do so in the letter. The hallways were just starting to fill up now. Maggie didn’t say much other than to show me where this classroom was. She was a fairly competent tour guide, taking me to all the wings. The subjects here were separated by hallways, which made it a lot easier for a newbie like me. We were in the Math hall, when she finally stopped and turned toward me. She stared at me for a moment, stared long and hard.

It was kind of creepy.

“Ummm” she said, her voice soft and barely audible. When she spoke again, it was louder. “You’re Mary’s cousin, right?”

That surprised me. “How did you know that?”

She smiled. “My grandfather picked you up at the airstrip on Sunday.”

Her grandfather---oh Mr. Wilkes. This girl was his granddaughter? I squinted my eyes at her; I guess I could sorta see the family resemblance. They had the same bone structure, possibly the same nose. It made me wonder though. If her grandfather knew what I was then did that mean she knew what I was too?

She seemed to be a mind reader because the next thing out of her mouth was exactly that. Well sort of. “My family serves the Coven, has for many years. Every once and a while, grandpa does little things like that.” She paused, biting her lip slightly. “Can you do magic too?”

I sighed, shaking my head. “I’m a Dud.”

She frowned. “I’m sorry.” I smiled. A second later, I think she had a revelation. “Wait that makes you a boy?”

I laughed. “Last time I checked.”

She blushed. “Wow, I mean…you look…I mean…” She continued blushing. “I’m sorry; you just look so much…”

I laughed again. “I’m used to it.”

At least I thought I was. It’s strange but out of all the new people I’d met here so far, Sophie was the only one who could tell I was a guy. The next time I saw her I would have to give her a gold star.

There was silence between us until she asked. “So what’s it like being related to Mary?”

“An adventure.”

We both laughed at that.

After that, Maggie relaxed. The two of us finished our little school tour. She was a lot more open and less shy. She laughed and told me little anecdotes about certain things. She also let me know that a lot of students referred to Mr. McClintock as “Mr. McC” or just plain old “McC”. I suppose it was a lot easier to say---it definitely rolled off the tongue a bit easier. We had a laugh about McC and Mrs. Lee and how they thought I was a girl. I told her about my gender confusion at my old school, how even after I told people the truth they still didn’t believe me.

Maggie was a good listener. She was a lot like me in many ways. Looking at her, I knew that she didn’t have any friends or if she did, she didn’t have many. Kind of like me. I’d never thought of having a girl as a friend---none of them gave me the time of day back home---but Maggie was pretty cool. It helped that we had something in common too: MMORPG’s. Apparently, she lived for them, which was awesome. We talked in length about the various ones we were currently campaigning in. She might have been shy about some things but she sure was passionate about her gaming. Maggie was definitely a diehard gamer girl, which was totally awesome.
Sadly, our tour finally came to an end, just in the nick of time too. We broke up at the ringing of the bell. We both separated, rushing off to our first period classes. We promised to meet at lunch; we had the same period to eat.

I got into my first period class just as the bell was ringing. I dropped into a seat right near the door. There was a pretty blonde sitting next to me. She looked about as confused as I did. She was dressed pretty similar as well---which seemed odd because she was gorgeous; she had one of those bodies that a lot of girls dreamed of. I found it strange that she would cover it up like that.

She saw me looking. “Hey, I’m Mik…Misty.”

I gave her a nod. “Kelly.”

As class started---it turned out to be History---a couple of guys turned to look at Misty. They were giving her these looks, wagging their eyebrows as they did. She tried to ignore them but I could tell it upset her. I felt bad for her, it was clear that they thought she was something that she wasn’t. It now kind of made sense to me why she’d cover up like that. Thankfully, none of them looked at me like that; in fact, everyone in class pretty much ignored me. It was horrible to think but I was kind of glad that Misty was drawing some of the attention away from me.

History class passed without incident, so did my next two classes. During fourth period, however I wasn’t so lucky. I ended up sitting next to this guy who couldn’t help but stare at me. It was kind of creepy. About halfway through class, he leaned over and whispered:

“Hey, I’m Jack.”

I wanted to roll my eyes but I didn’t. I was used to this. “I’m Kelly.”

“Mr. Pratchett” snapped the teacher---who apparently had ears like a wolf. “Eyes up front, you can talk to Miss Daniels after class.”

I groaned. Two more for the girl camp. I think I’m going to get one of those Hello My Name Is stickers, write my name on it and put in big letters below it: I’M A GUY.

Thankfully, fifth period was lunch.

I entered the lunchroom, scanning for a place to sit. I caught sight of Mary with her friends. I recognized her buddy Greg immediately; I was surprised to see him clinging to a girl with curly hair. There were a few others at the table as well; my eyes were drawn to the blonde though. She looked vaguely familiar, like the two of us had met somewhere before. The one person I didn’t see was Trevor, which was kind of disappointing. Out of all of Ravencrest, Trevor was one of the only guys I could really tolerate. Greg was ok I guess but he could be kind of annoying with all the horror movie crap. Hey, monsters existed and they were nothing like how Hollywood portrayed them.

I thought about sitting with them but I didn’t want to intrude.

I looked around the room some more, hoping to see Morgan. I thought all of us had lunch at the same time but I couldn’t find him anywhere.

I scanned the rest of the room and found Maggie. She was sitting at a table all by herself, reading a book. I started toward her when I caught sight of another table loner: Misty. It seemed kind of strange, a girl that pretty not having any friends. She was trying not to be noticed either, practically hiding away in the corner. I watched her the whole time as I walked across the room, finally depositing my butt in the chair across from Maggie.

“Hey” I said, startling her. I apologized then asked. “What’s up with that Misty girl?”

Maggie glanced over her shoulder quickly. She lowered her voice when she spoke. “She’s got a reputation. She’s what you might call a…well…she’s a slut.”

I looked at Misty again. She was wearing a baggy hoodie and jeans. She didn’t look anything like the sluts at my school. “You sure?”

Maggie shrugged. “That’s the rumor.”

That pissed me off. I hated when other people labeled people because of how they appeared to be. Without thinking, I pushed out of the chair and walked over to Misty’s table. The girls at the next table watched me like I had some kind of disease. I ignored them as I walked up to her table.

“Hey” I said, she looked at me and smiled. “You sitting alone?”

She shrugged. “It happens.”

“You want to come and sit with me,” I said, pointing to the table with Maggie. “We’re loners too. It might be fun, everyone needs a little company.”

“I don’t take charity,” she snapped.

“It’s not charity” I said, “I know what it’s like to be given a label. It sucks big time. I thought you might want to rise above it.”

She took a moment before responding. “You won’t get upset sitting with the school slut?”

I shook my head. “I’m the guy who looks like a girl” Her eyes bugged out at that. Great she thought I was a girl too. “Maggie is the quiet type. You’d fit in quite nicely.”

She smiled and nodded. She grabbed her things and followed me back to the table. I made quick intros then the three of us sat and ate our lunch in silence. Hey, I broke the ice with the invite; it’s not my job to start everything. It didn’t really matter; I’m not sure what us three could really talk about. We were strangers after all, maybe in time we’d find something in common besides being outcasts.

When I was done with lunch, I excused myself to take my tray to trash. I tried to keep my head down as I went. I was getting some stares. I’m not sure if it was one of those “hey look at the girly guy” kind of stares or “hey check out the weird girl.” Neither one of them was very welcome but the former was better than the latter. I could deal with the girly guy crap, hell I’d even welcome it. The other stuff was starting to get to me. If there was, one thing I was hoping to enjoy about a new school was a new chance. But it didn’t take long for people to see girl when they looked at me. It didn’t help that my name was Kelly. A few days ago, I was proud of the name, now I wished it could be normal like every other guy.

I dropped the crap off my tray. I was hoping to go unnoticed but that didn’t really work out all that well.

“Hey” said a voice from beside me. “Mr. Stone’s class right?”

It was that guy Jack. I really didn’t need this right now.

“You figure that out all by yourself?”

I hoped that being a “bitch” would get this guy to go away. I found out a long time ago to never reveal my true gender to any guy who hit on me. I did once and got a split lip because of it. So I played the stone cold bitch, hoping that it was enough of a turn off. Apparently this Jack guy was a little thick, either that or he was actually attracted to it.

Jack laughed. “It’s kind of hard not to think about it or you. You’ve been on my mind all day.”

I groaned. I didn’t care if he heard me or not. “You seem like a nice guy but I’m not interested.”

“Not even a little bit?”

“Beat it Pratchett!” snapped a voice as Mary appeared out of nowhere.

Ok so probably not out of nowhere, I just didn’t see her coming.

Jack’s face went white as a sheet. He recovered quickly. “This is between her and me Crawford.”

Mary didn’t skip a beat. “She’s my cousin; do you really want to go there?”

That did it. Jack shook his head quickly, apologized and disappeared. It was almost as if he was afraid of Mary. I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Mary was doing some laughing of her own though. “Did he actually think you were a girl?”

“It happens all the time,” I said with a groan.

Mary dumped her trash. “Freaky.”

I nodded. “It happens, I deal.”

Mary didn’t say anything for a moment. Instead, she looked across the cafeteria. I think she was looking at my table because the next words out of her mouth were pretty nasty. “Misty Curtis?” I nodded. “Stay away from her, she’s bad news.”

“That slut thing has to be a rumor, there’s just no way that girl is a slut.”

Mary shook her head. “It’s not the slut thing, it’s something else. Trust me when I say that she’s a bad person and leave it at that.”

“You’re telling me who I can and can’t be friends with?”

“You can be friends with anyone else in this school except her.”

That pissed me off. “You know Mary, I thought you’d changed and I was right. Instead of being this little punkish brat, you’ve turned into a real bitch. I think our grandmother is finally starting to wear off on you.”

I didn’t wait for a snappy come back from her. Instead, I pushed past her, slamming my shoulder into hers as I did so.

I ended up walking home. Mary only had the one bicycle and apparently, she rode it. I had two options but I definitely didn’t want to spring for a cab. It wasn’t that far from the school actually. It was fairly nice out too, the weather was warmer than it was the last few days anyway. I was still shivering though. I was never going to get used to the weather here. It was fifty degrees and though that was warm to the people here, it was pretty damn cold to me. I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining. It apparently could get as cold as thirty below. I’m not sure what I was going to do then. At home, I would have taken the bus but apparently, they didn’t run buses here. There was no need; the school was in walking distance of the town after all.

The walk gave me some time to think about the rest of the day so it wasn’t all bad. After lunch, I ended up in Gym class. I got a lot of strange looks because everyone thought I was a girl in the wrong class. The teacher wouldn’t let me in the locker room with the other guys even. He made me sit on the bleachers and told me he’d get things sorted out soon enough. I tried to tell him I was in fact a guy but apparently, my pleas fell on deaf ears. I tried to tell him to look at his class list, to see what it said next to my name but apparently, there was some kind of mix up. My name hadn’t even been added to his list.

The rest of the day was kind of a downward slope from there.

A few of the guys from my Gym class were in my next class. They spread it around real quick that I---the new girl---ended up in their class by accident. Suddenly I had every male eye in the room checking me out. It didn’t stop there, spreading to the next few classes. The only solace from it all was my hoodie; I could bury my face in it. It also helped that Maggie was in one of my classes and Misty in another. Somehow, the two of them had latched themselves onto me. Misty had this way about her almost as if she were a bully in another life or something. Even though they thought she was this slut, a lot of guys were afraid of her too.

Maggie just stuck by me for moral support. I hid in my hoodie pretty much for the rest of the day. I practically ran out of the classroom at the end of ninth. I stopped briefly at my new locker before bailing. Now here I was on my way home, freezing my ass off. Tomorrow I was going to try bringing a heavier coat because the wind was going straight through my hoodie. I was still quite a ways from “home” too. There was no way I was going to make it like this. I looked around, thought about stopping. I was just on Main Street now. I overheard some of the kids talking about someplace called Mario’s---a pizza place I think. I started scanning the streets, hoping to find it.

What I found instead was the purr of a Japanese motorcycle. I turned just in time to see Sophie come roaring up beside me. She was dressed differently today, normal I guess in t-shirt and jeans. She was still wearing her leather jacket though. She stopped the bike, pulling off her helmet. Her long hair was tied off in a braid that went down her back. She shook it free, letting it whip around like a deadly weapon.

“Hey Kels” she said, already giving me a nickname. “Why is it that every time I come across you, you’re freezing your butt off?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Just lucky I guess.”

She smiled. “I was going to go and get something to eat, want to join me?”

How could I refuse the invitation of such a beautiful girl? We left her bike there and walked the little ways to Mario’s. I wasn’t that far from it actually. Mario’s was the place to go after school apparently because it was packed. We had to elbow our way inside. It took nearly twenty minutes to get to the counter and order. Thankfully, I only had a coke; Sophie ordered herself a whole pie. WE took a booth---someone would bring her her food.

“So why so glum?”

“What makes you think I’m glum?”

She smirked. “I’m a mind reader silly,” We both laughed. “Seriously though, I have this gift. I can just look at people and know something is up. Clearly something is bothering you.”

I sighed then told her about my day. When I was finished with the whole thing, she laughed. I guess it was hard not to.

“They actually thought you were a girl?” I nodded, she laughed a little louder. “All of them?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

It took her a while to stop laughing. When she finally did, she turned her head left and right.

“Well in the right light you do look a little feminine,” she said with a reassuring smile. “Have you ever worn girls’ clothes before?”

“Not by choice” I said then quickly filled her in about how some clothes didn’t fit me right because I was so small.

At that moment, her pizza arrived. She offered me a slice but I wasn’t really hungry. I was shocked when she tore into it though. I’d never seen a girl her size eat pizza like that. She didn’t seem shy about it either. A few guys from a nearby table watched with their mouths open slightly, I was the same way. Halfway through the feast, Sophie realized she was a spectacle. Instead of being quiet about it though, she drew more attention.

“What” she said rather loudly. “Its like you morons have never seen a real girl eat!”

There were some murmurs, Sophie laughed then went right back to eating. As soon as she finished, we left. She offered to give me a ride home, which I readily took. She made me wear her helmet because she was afraid for my safety. I climbed onto the back of the bike---wrapping my arms around her just like before. On the bike, it didn’t take very long to get to my grandmother’s. I made her stop a few houses down though because I could only imagine what the old woman would say if she saw me pull up on the back of the motorcycle. I thanked her for the ride and the two of us made plans to meet up this weekend.

“See you Saturday, girlfriend” she said with a laugh before taking off.

I ran the rest of the way home. When I slipped inside, I was glad to see that only Mary was there. She was on the couch, Nicodemus and Diamond on either side of her. All three of them stared at me as soon as I walked in. I hated the way cats stared like that. Nicodemus was the worst. He had one of those gazes that felt like he was judging. Those golden eyes were on me now, watching my every movement. Like my mother, it felt like my grandmother had had that menacing black cat forever. He didn’t seem any older though. I didn’t know much about Familiars but was it possible they lived longer than normal animals?

“You stop at Mario’s?” asked Mary, scrutinizing me with her eyes just like the cats.

“Do I smell like pepperoni or something?”

She didn’t answer instead she asked another question. “Who was your friend on the motorcycle?”

I groaned. “You spying on me now?”

She pushed herself off the couch. She glared at me. I could see where everyone at school called her “Malice”. That glare of hers alone was enough to scare even the brawniest of guys. She walked toward me, still glaring. She didn’t say anything at first but she continued to stare. She even walked around me once, like she was sizing me up or something.

“Planning to eat me now?”

She shook her head. “I was just wondering if it’s possible that’s all.”

That piqued my interest. “If what’s possible?”

She smiled. “I’ve been doing some reading. I thought maybe I could help you out.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What’s in it for you?”

“Can’t I just help out my cousin in need?”

“Ummm no”

“You’d owe me one,” she said simply, waving it off like it was nothing.

Owing her a favor. I’m not sure I liked the sound of that but at the same time I was kind of curious. “What were you thinking?”

“What if I told you there was a way for you to stop confusing people?”

That definitely piqued my interest. “I’m listening.”

Mary smiled. “I know this spell…”

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF