Ellen the Teenage Witch

There Be Witches?

Ellen was a very ordinary 14-year-old girl. A freshman in high school, she didn't have the highest grades, nor the lowest. She wasn't a great athlete, but neither was she the least athletic either. There were less athletic girls in gym class.  She wasn't the prettiest or the ugliest. She wasn't the most popular girl in the school, but...

Ellen thought about her position on the popularity scale, and she had to admit to herself that she really hovered closer to the bottom than the top. She just wasn't very good at making small talk, or smiling, or doing all the other things that just came naturally to the popular girls. She just lacked their effortless poise and charm. Instead of being social, Ellen often found herself alone in her thoughts and daydreams.

School had ended for the day and she was walking home alone. In middle school, she used to walk home with her best friend Olivia who lived only three houses down her block. But Olivia, who was 5'8", two inches taller than herself, had been recruited for the basketball team, and she was busy after school with basketball practice, so now Ellen no longer had a best friend to walk home with. At 5'6" herself, Ellen was taller than the average freshman girl, but not tall enough to be highly desired as a basketball player. She didn't like team sports anyway, so it was just as well.

As she walked along the sidewalk, a girl came up to her. She looked a few years older, maybe she was in college. Her style could only be described as goth. She had jet black hair and pale skin, dark reddish-black lipstick and black makeup around her eyes, a goth-style black choker, a black top which showed off her cleavage. Ellen thought that most guys would find her sexy if they weren't put off by her goth look.

"Hi Ellen," the girl said.

"Hi," Ellen said, somewhat taken aback. "Do I know you?" Ellen was sure she didn't know this girl, unless maybe she had met her once before she want goth, because she certainly wouldn't forget a girl who was all goth, which was not the most common look in her neighborhood which was mostly preppy.

"My name is Tara," the goth girl said, and I guess you don't know me yet, but we've been observing you for a while.

"We?" Ellen asked, somewhat confused. Ellen wondered if she should be scared, but when one looked past Tara's scary-looking goth outfit, Tara herself didn't seem too threatening. Tara was 5'4", a good two inches shorter than herself and rather skinny. Not that Ellen had ever been in a fight, but Tara didn't look physically intimidating.

"We are the coven of Middlebury witches," she said. "We look for young people with a talent for magic, and we invite them into our coven to train. You have the talent, and I was sent to invite you to join us."

Ellen though to herself that Tara had let her goth outfit go to her head or something. She didn't want to be rude and tell her what she really though, so she tried to politely decline the offer.

"I'm sorry," said Ellen, "but I don't think that's something I'm interested in. But thanks."

"You don't understand," said the goth girl, "you have the talent to do magic, you wouldn't want to waste that. You don't believe me, but I can prove it."

The girl made a gesture with her hand, and then, to Ellen's surprise, her backpack felt lighter. She looked up to see her math textbook floating in the air several feet above her head.

"That's my math textbook!" Ellen exclaimed, amazed. "How are you doing that?"

"I told you, it's magic, and you can do it too, and a lot more than just telekinesis," she said as the math textbook floated down and Tara grabbed it out of there air, and handed it back to Ellen. "You want to learn, don't you?"

"Well, what do I have to do to sign up?" Ellen asked?

"Glad you asked!" said Tara. "Magic classes start next Monday, and they are every weekday except Fridays. We'll send someone to pick you up after school, since we know you're too young to drive by yourself and we know you can afford to take an Uber. We'll send you a text message with the details, later.

"You'll have to make up some excuse to your mom as to why you're coming home from school late every day. I recommend telling her you joined some sports team or after school activity or something. It's forbidden to tell outsiders about the coven, and that includes your own family. Don't break the rule. If you do, you'll be kicked out of the school, and also punished. So just don't do it."

The part about being punished sounded ominous, but Ellen decided that she was going to do it. She realized that if she could really do magic, like she saw Tara just do, she'd no longer be the ordinary girl who had nothing going for her. She was tired of being ordinary. She wanted to be extraordinary.