Life's A Witch

Chapter Twenty-Two

Apparently all you need to do in order to light a fire under someone's butt is land your friends in the hospital. Because once the violence gets real, people tended to come around to doing whatever it takes to survive.

The next day when everyone had woken up by 8 a.m., gotten fed and dressed, and assembled in the living room all ready to go, I knew that what I'd said the night before had really sunk in. It was also proof that all had been forgiven, which made me happier than I could describe.

But when I strutted into the living room, pulling on the jacket of my magical designer knockoff track suit (bright red, of course), I saw that everyone was already there, waiting for me. Considering how late we'd all been up the night before, I figured I'd be dealing with a bunch of cranky kids, all more interested in going back to sleep than doing work.

That wasn't the case, though. I think this was partly because after my big speech the night before, we'd spent another hour ironing out the details of how to prepare for our inevitable battle with the Parrishables. This included a serious powwow about each of our biggest secrets.

We went around the room as everyone recalled everything that could possibly give us an advantage over the Parrishables. Besides Emory's ability to talk to the dead and Sascha's talent for transferring her power to others in order to help them heal, we were all a little surprised to find out that still more had their own gifts to contribute. For instance, Jasmine was like a human mood ring and could see others' auras, which would be helpful in foretelling people's intentions. Fallon was somehow able to pick things up really quickly. Like someone who had a photographic memory, he could try a spell once and would never forget it. Like magic memory or something. Of course, just because he knew how to do the magic didn't mean he could always execute it correctly. That was all dependent on the strength of the caster and the time they put into working on the spells.

After going through all this, we began to work out how we could use these things to our advantage. Those who didn't have special powers contributed in other ways, like by sharing their favorite family spells. It turned out that even the most tight-knit coven kept some things from each other.

"Whoa, Hadley, cute outfit!" Sascha said as I walked into the room. "You always have such cute clothes! I'm totally jealous."

I looked at her choice of sweatpants and a tank top. She saw me taking in her outfit and then made a face. "I didn't know we'd be training when we went shopping before," she said, sounding slightly ashamed.

I looked around the room and saw that she wasn't alone. No one was quite as fashionable as I was, but then again, that was usually the case no matter the situation. And of course, I'd had a little help.

I thought it was time for me to give them a little help too.

"Actually, if you like it so much . . . you can have it," I said, deciding that I knew which spell I was going to teach the group first.

For a minute, she looked like she didn't know whether or not I was kidding. Once she realized I was being serious, her eyes grew wide and she shook her head. "No, I couldn't take your outfit, Hadley. It looks crazy expensive, and besides, I'm pretty sure we're not the same size."

I gave her a sly smile. This was going to be fun. "I didn't mean you should actually take mine," I said, turning to look at everyone else around the room. "Listen up, guys, I've got your first lesson of the day right here."

I proceeded to teach everyone my glamour spell. I had no idea how this was going to help us win the war against the Parrishables, but who was to say we wouldn't need it for something? At the very least, we'd all look good in the heat of battle. After all, outfits really did make a difference. Why do you think sports teams wear uniforms? Fashion is something that unifies people.