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Author's Note:Guess who's back. I'm not just talking about me either. So I had a bit of the dreaded Writer's Block with my Misty story. I promise to get back to that as soon as I can but right now I'm going to give everyone a story they've been asking for. That's right, its the return of Kelly. We don't exactly pick up where her last tale left off but its really close. You might want to read Season of the Witch before this one as it is a direct sequel.I'd like to thank djkauf for the excellent editing.~Enemyoffun.

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Chapter 1:
 

“Are you a good witch or…”

That’s the question of the hour.

I hit the pause button; the image on the flatscreen froze. I couldn’t help but sigh heavily, tossing the remote onto the cushion next to me. Looking at the screen, seeing Glinda the Good frozen in mid-sentence gave me some warm comfort. I couldn’t remember how many times Jess had gotten me to watch that stupid movie. She had a bit of love for Wizard of Oz, what with her being a witch after all. I vividly remembered her saying more than once “That’s going to be me some day”, pointing at the pink clad witch on the screen. I could also remember being jealous. Not of being in pink of course but of the possibility that she would be able to use magic and I would not.

Oh, how things change.

I reached for the remote, allowing my hand to hover over it before I actually picked it up. I wasn’t sure if I was really in the mood for the Wizard. Jess used to watch it from time to time, especially when she was feeling like shit. She said it cheered her up. I thought it might help me get out of my funk but so far, things were only going from bad to worse. I knew life wasn’t going to be easy but I never thought things were going to be so bad, especially when everything seemed like it was finally turning around.

I was a bump on the wall before, a barely there that no one noticed or cared about. Then I went to Ravencrest and everything changed. My stupid cousin cast a spell on me; it turned me from nobody Dud Kelly into super witch Kelly. Ok, so not Super Witch per se, but it unlocked my true potential. A potential that cause nothing but problems from Day One. Stalked by crazy cultists, tricked by fake friends, life fell apart fast. It took burning down a nightclub and being stabbed by my evil boyfriend to make me realize how important life truly was. After that, I wanted to grab life by the balls as it were and finally start living. We came back home to California and I thought I could finally live a little.

I was wrong.

I wanted to fall back into some kind of normal but that didn’t really work in my favor. As per the plan, I went to my best friend first. Tommy and I had been really close as kids. We had a bit of a misunderstanding in middle school though. After he went through puberty and I did not, I thought he was abandoning me to hang out with the bully who’d been terrorizing us for years. In truth, it was all part of his plan to protect me. A plan that eventually led to us rekindling our dead friendship. Then I went to Ravencrest. When I came home, he was the first one I sought out. I was a little apprehensive about talking to him but I needed to confide in someone about what happened, someone who I thought and knew could handle it.

Tommy cracked under the pressure.

I’m not sure if he thought I was nuts or if he just thought I was some kind of freak. Our conversation in The Square went Ok but things were kind of different after that. I tried to hang with him afterwards but it was usually us sitting around in awkward silence. It was hard to find something to have in common when one of us is not only a girl but a witch as well. I have to give him some props though; he handled the whole magic thing quite well. After our talk in The Square, I brought him back home for dinner and my rents laid down the law to him. I don’t think they were too happy I told him everything, but I needed someone to confide in. After they made him swear on pain of death not to tell anymore, things were good.

That is until school started a few days after that. Dad cleared everything with the higher ups. As far as they were concerned, I had been one very confused girl. That’s right: girl. Dad used a great deal of persuasion and a tiny bit of magic to convince them that I had always been his daughter and that; I was just going through a very severe tomboy stage. The school eventually bought it but my peers weren’t so forgiving. Lots of nasty rumors started to spread. Some labeled me as a transgendered freak, others a Lesbo. Others simply just kept their distance for fear that I might infect them with something. In the end, I became more of a pariah than I was before. It didn’t help that Tommy turned his back on me too. After the second day of school, he just stopped coming around.

I guess I couldn’t blame him. Hanging with me was social suicide.

So here it was two weeks later---me the pariah----hiding in the Den.

The light flicked on, blinding me out of my thoughts. I cursed, shielding my face from it. I heard feet on the stairs and a second later, my sister appeared at the bottom of them. She crossed her arms and frowned at me. To look at her, you could barely tell the two of us were related. Jess resembled Mom: with her long reddish brown hair and green eyes where I took after Dad with my blonde hair and blue eyes. Jess was also very active, outspoken and courageous. College life had done nothing to hinder that activity either. She was active in several clubs and was a sorority sister. I couldn’t help but snort at that last one. It made me shiver a bit too. When I asked her if there were vampires in it, she laughed but told me all about the others.

Jess went to Mumford. It was a small college most people had never heard of. It was in Northern Cali and catered mostly to the Unseen. Sure Norms could go there but the Unseen population outweighed the Norms like 3 to 1 or something.

“Tell me you’re not moping in the dark again, sis?”

Jess was getting a thrill out of calling me sis. We were never all that close back when I was a boy, mostly my fault. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was a bit jealous of her. Plus her outgoing personality clashed drastically with my gamer geek loner persona. A few days after we returned home from Ravencrest, Jess was there. She practically rushed into the house and threw herself at me. My folks practically had to use a crowbar to pry me out of the hug. From that moment on, Jess tried to get home whenever possible. She apparently decided it was her God Given Duty to turn me into the perfect girl. I’m not talking about dresses and makeup. I’m talking about making sure my life and soul were adjusted to the “New Me”---her words, not mine. I think she secretly wanted a little sister too.

I snatched up the remote and shut off the movie before she saw what I was watching. Jess came into the room with that energetic stride of hers, dropping onto the couch next to me. It was the weekend so I hadn’t bothered to dress this morning. Instead of the usual bed pants I wore, I’d taken to wearing an old t-shirt and some boy shorts. The shorts were one of Jess’s ideas. She said it would help me adjust better. I quickly pulled my legs up onto the couch, sitting with my knees at my chin. Jess ran a finger along my hairless leg, making sure I’d shaved this morning. I shuddered at the touch. Then flinched when that very same hand went to my head, ruffling my hair.

“I really wish you hadn’t cut it,” she said, frowning.

One of the first things I did when I got back, after gutting my bedroom of course was to get a haircut. Having the long hair was fine in Ravencrest because no one knew me there but it was going to be really hard to explain how it got so long in only a few weeks. So it was a decision based on reality more than anything. One my sister protested too but I was more than happy to change. Now my hair was cut short, about the same length as boy me but styled more like a girl. I’m not sure what the hell they called the cut but it was so much easier to take care of.

“I like it like this” I said, batting away her hand.

She pouted. “I wanted to braid it.”

“Why are you here?” I asked, changing the conversation.

She scoffed. “I came to see my little sis.”

I knew that was a lie. For the last two weekends, Jess had been here. I couldn’t remember the last time she’d ever wanted to be home that much. Even during vacation time from school.

I raised an eyebrow, questioning her true motive.

“Ok” she confessed. “Mom was worried. Frankly, I am too. I thought we agreed that loner, dork boy was gone?”

He was gone, at least for the most part.

Jess had helped a great deal with that. For starters, she had helped redecorate my room. Not that I didn’t like all the action figures and comic posters. She felt they were a little boyish and more importantly, a tad childish too. A small part of me actually agreed with her. We spent my first weekend back taking them all down, boxing them up and putting them in the attic. She then helped me girlify things a bit. We painted my room a light blue, changed the curtains and some furniture. We moved one of her spare mirrors onto one of my walls and hung some nice prints. She even donated a crap ton of her old clothes that no longer fit. I took and shoved most of that stuff in the closet, except the jeans. I was beginning to really like the cut of girl’s jeans, especially the skinny leg ones. There was just something about them that made me feel that extra bit feminine.

“Loner boy is gone,” I said, reassuringly.

“Then what’s the deal?”

I sighed. Damned if I knew. I’d been in a great big funk lately. It wasn’t just school either. It was life in general. Sure, I’d been through a lot of huge changes but it was more than that. I couldn’t really place my finger on it but I had this strange feeling that here should be more. Sure, I was a girl now and a witch but everything else seemed kind of normal. Was I bored? Did I miss running around, getting chased by cult members and psychopaths? Did I miss arguing with Mary, laughing with Maggie and Misty? Did I miss Ravencrest?

Jess nudged me. “I know that look.”

“You do?”

She nodded. “You know what I do when I’m bummed?”

I groaned. Here it comes.

“It’s called Retail Therapy.”

Shit, how did I know she was going to say that?

“Definitely this one”

The “this one” in question was a scrap of denim that I think might have been a skirt at some point in its small life. What it was now I had no idea. What I did know was that it was never going anywhere near my body. The look I gave my sister was enough for her to know it too. She quickly put the article back on the rack and went to more sensible offerings, chuckling all the way. I guess I couldn’t really blame her. This was probably the greatest bit of payback ever for her. It was her retribution for all those horrible years I spent tormenting her.

“How about this one?” she asked, coming back with a more sensible looking one.

Sure, it was still a skirt but it was still much too small for me.
“Not on your life.”

“Kel, you’ve got great legs…you should show them off.”

I was “showing them off” in a nice pair of jeans. My mother helped me pick out these jeans. They were nice and sensible. They were a lot better than whatever it was my sister was wearing. I’d never understand how mixing a skirt with leggings was supposed to be in style now. A lot of the girls at my school were dressing like that too. I mean where did it say that something like that even looked remotely good. I thought my sister above all that but I guess I sadly underestimated her.

“The day I wear either of those skirts is the day you shave your head.”

We both laughed.

It might not have seemed like it but we were having a good time. Jess was right; this Retail Therapy was really helping me get over my grumpy mood. Besides her two skirt choices, we did have a nice selection of outfits to go with. I couldn’t help but laugh at that term. Who would have thought a few months ago that I would be in a teen boutique picking out clothes---outfits no less----with my sister. What was the world coming to?

Jess dragged me over to shoes. I tried to protest, telling her I had enough but she insisted. I tried to pretend I was interested but I really wasn’t. You can take me shopping for clothes no problem but shoes. Why go shopping and buy something that you only need one pair of? I mean Jess has at least twelve pairs; my mother has enough to supply a small country. Before---as a boy----I might have had two pairs. Now I already had four. There was no reason I needed anymore.

“These?”

“No”

“How about these?”

“Not a chance”

Jess sighed. “We were having fun weren’t we?”

“I’m having loads. I just don’t see the need to buy more shoes than you need.”

She relented.

We left the boutique with lighter wallets. Jess seemed giddy with our purchases, me I was indifferent as usual. Clothes were clothes. Sure, I liked my jeans but I wouldn’t go out of my way and blow my entire paycheck on them. Jess on the other hand, I’m pretty certain she’d blown numerous paychecks on clothes. Thinking about money made me feel a little down again. Dad was already starting to gripe about expenses. It was one thing to pay for Jess’s college and whatever she needed but we were spending a small fortune on me now. It cost a lot of money to redo a bedroom and buy a whole new wardrobe.

As we were leaving the boutique, I couldn’t help but scan the numerous storefronts around us. I wonder which one of them were hiring?

Jess caught me looking. “You don’t want to work here.”

“Why not?”

“Trust me.”

Jess had her first job here in this mall. I guess she was the voice of wisdom. It was kind of funny what only a couple of months does to a person. Before I never would have thought about getting a job but now I couldn’t help but feel a little more responsible. Maybe changing genders really was the best thing that could have happened to me.

We left the mall shortly after that. Jess tried to talk me into staying but I really wanted to do some shopping on Main Street. Sure, I liked the mall for its variety but Main Street had a lot of the little shops that I liked to frequent too. Besides The Box was there too. The last time I’d been in there was the day when all the shit hit the fan. It had been right before I was supposed to go to Ravencrest---the legit way. I went in there to browse the new selection and shortly after that, my life, as I knew it was over. A small part of me was itching to get back there. I wanted to be somewhere familiar; somewhere I could be myself, regardless of the gender.

When we hit the parking lot, Jess was still in pretty high spirits.

“You want to drive?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”

In California the driving age was fifteen but I spent the whole of last year procrastinating. Now that I was sixteen and home, it was starting to nag at me. Life was starting to nag at me actually. I wanted to explore every bit of it. Well I did. Now I was in a rut again. Losing Tommy and burning out at school kind of destroyed any ambition I might have had before. Now I was just content to let other people drive and sit beside them---the passenger seater for life.

“I can teach you.”

I almost took her up on that offer but I didn’t feel confident enough for that. Jess was a great driver but I could only imagine how she would be as a teacher. She had offered to do the same with my magic as well. Now that I was no longer in Ravencrest and without a teacher, I was sorta stuck on the whole magic front. Mom of course had Jess to teach and our closest relative was a great aunt, on my father’s side. She was a Norm too, knew nothing of magic. Mom said she made a call and that the nearest Coven was looking for someone but in the meantime I was prohibited from even thinking about magic. Ok that wasn’t true but I definitely wasn’t allowed to use it. It was against the rules to use unsanctioned and unsupervised magic at my age.

I could only imagine the shit storm I caused back in New York.

“So where too now” she asked as soon as we got into the car.

“Can we hit Main Street?”

Jess smiled big. “I like where your mind is going sis.”

Main Street and The Square was a short ten minute drive from the mall. I spent the whole drive trying to work up the courage to actually walk into The Box. When we finally arrive, Jess pulled up in front of Carson’s instead. I turned toward the restaurant, looking at the crowd of people already inside. A crowd that consisted of a lot of my classmates. One of whom was Tommy. He was sitting with a group of kids from one of the sports teams. I’d heard that he was trying out for Soccer so I’m guessing those were some of the guys on the team. I felt a small bit of jealousy. I thought Tommy was different, I thought he would be able to see past me and see me. Ok that made no sense. I wanted him to see that I was still the same me I was before all this---just a little different now.
But he was just like the rest of them.

As soon as we got to the entrance, my feet turned to lead. I think Jess sensed my apprehension but she gave me the extra little shove I needed. I took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping inside. You know what, the building didn’t implode. Sure, a few of them looked my way but no one said anything. I let out my breath as we made our way to the counter. Tara Brown was the girl there. She was in my English class. She gave me a little longer look but said nothing. Well nothing except what she had to say.

“Welcome to Carson’s. Can I take your order?”

I got a shake and some fries, Jess got one of their cheeseburger combos. While we waited for our food, I couldn’t help but scan the gathered masses. The place was pretty full today, only a few empty tables and one booth left. As my eyes scanned the crowd, I caught them going to Tommy again. He and his new friends were laughing about something. He looked happy. He shouldn’t look happy. He blew me off, if anything he should be upset. He lost his friend, why wasn’t he upset. I felt a tingle in my fingers, a twitch in my gut. My blood started to boil, my face got hot. WHY WASN’T HE UPSET? Black lightning started to dance across my fingertips.

My hatred flared. I shot daggers at Tommy. I wanted to shoot something else at him, too.

Suddenly I felt a gentle hand grab my own. I looked to see Jess, her hand tightly holding mine. Her warmth and caring killed whatever rage that was building inside of me. As soon as the tingling stopped and hot pain died down, I could think straight again. As soon as I realized what almost happened, I cursed. I’d almost done it again and this time there were people around to see.

“It’s ok” said Jess, holding my hand and our food on a tray. “Let’s sit.”

She led me to the booth. Luckily, for Tommy, it was on the other side of the place.

I sat with my back to him. If I couldn’t see him then I couldn’t try to fry him.

“I’m sorry,” I said, wanting to cry.

The first time I was lucky there was no serious damage done. It was after my first day of school. After everyone had been assholes to me all day. I got home and I lost it when my mother asked me how my day was. The force of the blast knocked over all the furniture in the living room, cracked our front window and sent my mother on her butt. It was only a little burst too. I had only felt a little tingling then and there hadn’t been any lightning on my fingers. I could only imagine what today would have been like if Jess hadn’t been there.

“You want to tell me about it?”

I shook my head but told her anyway. “What gives him the right to be happy? I’m his friend. He shouldn’t be happy, he should be miserable like me. I mean, he ditched me. He was supposed to understand, he was supposed to be there….be my friend.”

I felt it again. My skin was starting to tingle. Jess gently touched my hand and the tingling stopped.

“Sweetie, he is your friend. He’s just a little scared right now. How would you feel if your best friend turned into a girl and then told you magic was responsible?”

“But I know about magic, it wouldn’t scare me.”

“Sure but you’re not a Norm like him.”

I opened my mouth to say something contradicting her but she was right. I sometimes forget that this isn’t Ravencrest. Ninety nine percent of the people here are Norms. If any of them actually knew about the real world around them, they’d probably piss themselves. It was a scary thing. It was also the reason that we kept ourselves hidden from them. Bad things tended to happen when Norms found out about us. So what do I do: I go and tell the first Norm I know? How freaking stupid was that? It pissed me off that I was so naíve and that he was so ignorant.

“You’re right,” I admitted, sighing.

“Of course I am,” she said, taking one of my fries.

We sat in silence while we ate or rather while I tried to keep Jess from eating my fries. In the middle of our “fight”. We let more than a few fall on the floor. My sister was such a pig sometimes. I sighed then bent to pick them up. As I was doing so, I took a tiny peek back to look at Tommy. I promised myself I wasn’t going to get angry. Unfortunately he was gone. However I did catch eyes with someone else. There was a girl sitting at the booth behind where Tommy was. I’m not sure why I didn’t notice her before, I guess I wasn’t really looking. I was now and I had to say she was hard to miss. She was the type that stood out. Long dark hair, straight bangs, much more dark eye makeup. Her clothes were tight too, her shirt cut to show off her chest, her skirt shorter than I thought possible. What the hell kind of trap was this?

The creepiest thing about her though was the way she seemed to be staring at me. It was not the look of a someone staring at a stranger. It was the look of someone staring at another person they knew or at least wanted to know. It was a hungry, lustful look---thank God. It was more of an “I see you” type look. Very creepy. It sent shivers down my spine and for some reason I couldn’t stop staring at her. I wasn’t mesmerized or anything, intrigued maybe but not like I wanted to be her friend.

I finally broke the gaze. The girl gave me a slight smile, her plum colored lips curling ever so slightly.

I picked up the fallen fries.

“You there space cadet?” asked Jess, touching my shoulder, causing me to jump.

“Jeez” I snapped, shaken from my trance.

“Jumpy, you’re not going to pop again are you?”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “No, just creeped by that girl over there”

Jess didn’t look. “You mean The Scary Sherry” She scoffed. “That girl wants to look sinister but she’s full of a lot of hot air.”

“I hate girls like that”

As soon as those words came out of my mouth, I caught sight of another type of girl I hated. Becky Raulings to be exact. She was the female equivalent of George Davis. But whereas George was of the threatening variety, Becky was the Queen Bee. Blonde, big breasted and popular, she ruled the school with kindness while secretly sucking the life out of it. Ok, that last bit was probably an exaggeration but after my few run ins with her, it was close to the truth. Much like George, Becky seemed to find me the newest target of her torment. She even went out of her way to find me, which was creepy on so many levels. I’d report her for stalking if she didn’t already have most of the administration in the school eating out of her hand. It also didn’t help that her father was the Superintendent.
As I was taking fries to the trash, she went out of her way to slam her shoulder into mine.

“Watch it, He She Freak.”

It was one of her clever little insults she made up for me.

Her two clones---Amber and Courtney---snickered and sneered along with their boss.

Fucking lemmings.

After the day I was having, I definitely wasn’t in the mood for Becky.

“What’s the matter Beck?” I said, making sure I could be heard by those close by. “Afraid that I make a better girl than you do?”

A couple of the guys at a nearby table laughed. Even Amber snickered before Becky shot her an evil glare.

“You little…” Becky’s anger flared. She nearly lost it in front of her adoring fans.

She kept her cool and did the next best thing. She took the shake from one the laughing asses and threw its contents at me. I got hit full on with chocolate. I can’t say that I didn’t deserve it but I kind of did. I was stunned for a second then the anger started. There was a lot of laughing. Becky puffed up, taking pride in her work. People like her made me sick to my stomach. I could have reached, I could have decked her. Hell I wanted to barbecue her ass. Instead, I decided to be the better woman. I smiled, took the cup from her hand and drank the last of it in one gulp. It was a bold move but one that had just as much merit as her own. It showed in one quick swoop that I wasn’t afraid of her.

Becky looked like she wanted to pop again.

She almost did too but was stopped when the Manager suddenly appeared.

“You” he snapped, pointing at Becky. “I saw that. So did my security cameras. Make another move and you’re banned for life. Now get the hell out of here before I call the cops.”

Becky huffed. She stomped her foot like a spoiled child and turned in one quick motion. Her Clones followed suit. Halfway to the door though, there was a crack. I turned just in time to see the heel on one of her shoes snap and her stumble to the floor. I gasped, not sure what happened but when she hit the ground, I couldn’t help but feel gratified somehow. That is until I saw Jess giving me daggers. I think she thought I was somehow responsible. I shook my head, trying to look as innocent as possible. A moment later, the room erupted in laughter. All the laughing faces made me feel good but not satisfied. No one deserved humiliation, not even the ones who regularly dished it out.

I sighed then walked over, reaching to help her to her feet.

“Get away freak,” she snapped, swatting my hand away.

That only made people laugh more, everyone that is but The Scary Sherry girl. She sat there, silently sipping her drink. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly though.

“Fine, stay on the floor” I said, pissed that she couldn’t even be human enough to ask for help.

I left there and stormed off toward the bathroom. I stopped myself from going into the Men’s at the last second. I cursed and went right to the sink. I grabbed as many paper towels from the dispenser as I could, wetting them and trying to get the shake off my shirt. I wasn’t doing so good. As I was trying desperately to scrub, I saw the door open behind me in the mirror. I half expected to see Jess but it was a girl about my age. She was there too, out there but not laughing like the others. She had been in a corner booth, hiding from them it seemed. I would be too if I had hair the color she had: light purple and dressed like my cousin.

“Talk about a total mess” she said quietly.

“Its nothing” I said “I’ve had worse.”

“I was talking about Queenie actually,” she said with a smile, the piercing under her bottom lip highly noticeable now. “You showed her though.”

“Me?”

Did she think I caused Becky to trip? Oh crap, oh crap.

“Yeah, telling her off like that. Then drinking that shake. God that was amazing. Wish I could do something like that when I wanted.”

I sighed. “Years of being tormented.”

And knowing how to deal.

“Still it was awesome” she said, before moving into one of the stalls and shutting the door.

Before the door closed all the way, I caught sight of the coolest tattoo on her calf: it was a purple flower, slowly weaving its way up. I knew those flowers well. It was a hyacinth; Mrs. Braddock had them all over her back garden and in her house. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of it before trying desperately to get the rest of the shake off.

I stopped after a few minutes, my task slightly successful. The purple haired girl was long gone now. I even smiled at her when she left. I finally admitted defeat too, exiting the bathroom to find Jess looking anxiously toward the door. She seemed to sigh in relief when I walked out and headed toward her.

“What a bitch” she said when I got to the table. “I so wanted to deck her.”

“She’s a nothing”

“You’re braver than I am. You don’t deal with that all day do you?”

I shrugged. Jess squeezed my hand, giving me a sympathetic smile.

“Lets get out of here, I’m all shopped out” I nodded. “You toss the crap, I’ll hit the ladies then we can go.”

I nodded as she slid out of the booth and headed to the bathroom. I started gathering everything to put on the tray when I noticed something written on one of the napkins. It definitely gave me pause: You owe me one now, I’ll collect later. The message sent a chill up my spine. I looked around to see who might have left it but there was no one around. I scanned the collection of faces, most from before were still there except for two: the Scary Sherry girl and the purple haired girl from the bathroom.

Did one of them leave this note and why?

Jess arrived a moment later. “You ok?”

I crumpled the napkin and stuffed it in my pocket. “Yep good” I said, smiling.

“Then let’s go.”

I took the tray and carried it to the trash. I couldn’t help but look over at the table where the creepy girl had been sitting. Thinking about her just made me shiver. I shook it off as we left the restaurant. I couldn’t help but think one thing as we headed to the car though. Here I thought home was going to be boring and nothing like Ravencrest at all.

Boy was I wrong.

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