The Clockwise Spell

Chapter 6

“Morning, dad.”

“Hey, Saph. I haven’t seen you since yesterday morning. Sorry about that – work ran late. How was your first day at Salem High?”

Oh, you know, torturous. I only made it to one class on time. So far, I have two normal friends – and one completely weird one. Also, he thinks I’m a witch and I might maybe sort of in a way believe him. He’s a warlock, by the way. Are you going to eat that toast?

Somehow, I don’t think my dad, as cool as he was, would be okay with that. So I just stuck with, “I made the track team.”

“That’s wonderful!” He told me distractedly, checking his watch. “Sorry Fire, got to run.” He kissed me on the cheek and left.

I rolled my shoulder. It still felt perfect, I noted sourly. So last night hadn’t been a dream. Just as I was about to leave for school, Rosie appeared in the doorway. She hadn’t even bothered to get dressed – her PJ’s were wrinkled until no end. But what shocked me the most was that she wasn’t wearing makeup – I rarely saw Rosie without mascara. She looked bare without it.

“Um… Rosie,” I started nervously, as she reached for the cereal box. “We have school in fifteen minutes.”

She shrugged, grabbing a bowl. It hit the counter top with a clatter. “Whatever.”               

“Whatever?”

“Yeah,” She spun around to face me, her eyes blazing. “Whatever. I don’t want to go to school. Unless that school happens to take place in the lovely town of Timson. Which I don’t think is going to happen, so I’m not going to school.”

I blinked lazily. Now that she mentioned it, staying home seemed like a perfect option. I could just say she was sick. “Yeah that sounds like a great idea.” I heard myself say. Then I blinked. And again.

My eyes traveled down to her perfectly manicured hand and right there…. On her right ring finger…

…was a ring. That happened to be identical to mine.

It hit me fast. I mean, I had accepted that I was a witch (sort of). Not that I had tried the theory out yet – for all I knew it could still be an elaborate hoax, but that chance was diminishing by the second. But… but my sister? Innocent, little Rosie? Sure, I had had weird things happen to me, but as far as I was concerned nothing like that happened to Rosie.

Right? Right?

Dread filled me. I’ve had some pretty bad things happen to me before but the thought that any of those things could happen to Rosie… little, innocent Rosie….

Oh, shit.

I figured stuff like “Hey Rosie? Did you know you’re a witch? By the way, I’m one too” couldn’t be covered in the fifteen minutes before school. Besides, as her older sister, I had a responsibility to make her go to school, right? Not that I wanted to go to school – no, right now, I really wanted to drag Tristan over here and make Rosie not be a witch (which probably couldn’t happen, but it was worth a shot).

I sighed and fought against her persuasion. “Rosie, go upstairs and do your makeup. You have five minutes.” I ordered. I hated being bossy (okay, only mildly), but she needed to get to school.

“No,” she said stubbornly, crossing her arms.

I focused hard. I mean, it couldn’t be too hard to do on demand, right? Persuasion, I mean.  “Rosie, go.” I said.

“No!” she scowled at me. “Just tell them I’m sick. Come on. I know you’ve skipped before. Just let me, for once!”

I narrowed my eyes. After last night, I could feel the shield that Tristan had mentioned. It surrounded every inch of me like those annoying dots that appear in your eyes after a camera flash. Except, of course, it didn’t go away after a minute. I could feel her shiled resisting my persuasion. Pushing against it, hard, I commanded, “Rosie, now.” The shield slammed back into place the second the persuasion had been let through but before it fully did, I could feel a quick rush of electricity through me, my head flipping dizzily.