Gwen Doh Lynn

13: A New Me?

I didn't want to wait until the next day to apologize, so I asked my mom to drive me over to Hazel's house. First, I had my mom call her mom though, and make sure it was okay.

Now I stood on her front steps, holding a shoebox filled with the items from our "scavenger hunt."

I rang the doorbell. And waited. And waited.

Hazel finally opened it, wearing her cat pajamas. Her dark hair wasn't braided and she looked tired. "My mom called from work and said you wanted to drop something off?"

I shoved the box of trinkets into her hands. "These are for you. I'm sorry about everything I said. I was wrong."

Hazel set down the box and peered into it.

"It's not about what you said. I know you were just upset." She still looked sad. "Maybe I pushed you into trying to be something you're not. You just wanted to be a normal kid. Maybe you're not a witch." She didn't look at me.

I knew she didn't mean to be hurtful, but her words stung.

I wanted to turn around and run away. I wanted to hide my face in my hood.

Instead I thrust my essay into her hand. "No, I am a witch," I said firmly. "Just read this."

She held up the paper. It was my essay. "It rained the first day I moved into Esmerlda May's old, dusty, wonky-looking house," she read. "It was not a great day."

"Please don't read the whole thing out loud," I said, embarrassed.

"I notice you left out the spiders part. Good call."

She kept reading, as I watched anxiously. She had a tendency to mumble out loud when she read (which annoyed some of the kids in our class during silent reading time.) As she read my essay, she muttered phrases out loud.

"just wanted to fit in"

"best friend"

"the house of local legend Esmerelda May"

"final scavenger hunt"

"magic of friendship"

She looked up and smiled a little bit. "That part's a teensy bit cheesy."

I rolled my eyes. "I know."

I felt like I stood there forever while she kept reading.

"Wait, so there was no grimoire?" she said, looking up at me.

I smiled. "Well, not exactly." I pulled the empty grimoire out of my backpack. "It's blank," I said and showed her the folded note.

"Woah!" she said. "This. Is. So. Cool."

I told her about how Cat led me to the hidden room and the old trunk. And how I was pretty sure he was once one of Esmerelda May's ravens.

Then I said, "I want you to have it." I tried to put the book into her hands.

She shook her head and pushed it away. "Uh uh. This is yours."

"But you deserve it more than me," I said.

"No way. Cat says it yours and I'm not arguing with Cat!" She laughed. "Anyway, I already have my own grimoire."

"You do?"

"Yeah, from my grandma. She was the witch in the family." That made me wonder who I inherited my magic from. "So why'd you bring me this other stuff?" Hazel asked, looking into the box.

I clapped my hands excitedly. "Because we have a Fall Festival and Awards Assembly to get ready for!"

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I dropped my essay off in the main office first thing in the morning, feeling light as a feather, and bounced off to class. Hazel was already at her locker. She was wearing one of her black dresses. Her tights had shimmery silver spider webs and black spiders on them. I felt boring in my pink hoodie and jeans.

Nothing could get on my nerves today!

Except music class. Ugh.

Elspeth had been staying well away from me since the tambourine episode.

Since it was almost Halloween, Miss Springfield had us listen to some of those creepy recordings, the ones that people play on their porches for trick-or-treaters. Like with ghost noises, and wolves howling, and creaking sounds. Then she teamed us up in groups of four, told us to make our own creepy sounds, and gave each group a tablet to record themselves on.

It might've been fun except she put me and Hazel with Elspeth and Natalia! Nightmare.

"Oh good," Elspeth said sarcastically.

Hazel was already howling like a wolf. Natalia laughed, but Elspeth said, "Can you just try to be normal for ten minutes."

"Elsie, this is supposed to be fun," Natalia said. Elspeth rolled her eyes.

I make whispering ooooo oooooooh noises like a ghost and Natalia meowed like an angry cat. The three of us laughed.

"Go ahead and be idiots," Elspeth snarled. "I'm not doing it."

I felt my neck get prickly. I felt my arms tingle. I wanted to yell at her, kick her, even throw another tambourine at her.

I turned and looked her right in the eyes and said calmly, "Fine. Then don't. We don't need your attitude." Hazel and Natalia stopped making noises, totally shocked. Even Elspeth was speechless. "We're having fun," I said.

Elspeth sat back with her arms crossed and a snotty look on her face while the rest of us howled, growled, hissed, moaned "Braaaiiins" and generally made fools of ourselves.

It was great.