Witch in Hiding (#1 in the Witches Trilogy) (EDITING)

Thirteen: R & R, As In, Run.

First thing in the morning, Jess, Mel, De and Van corner me. "We need to talk," Jess says.

"That's always a good thing."

They exchange glances. What are they, spies? "We've all been acting petty," Jess starts.

"We?"

She gives me a withering look. "Point is. Do you want to join us for a training session? Today, after school. We've put together something interesting at the paintball range."

I'm this close to telling her the truth, that I have a meeting planned with Rae, but then that night comes back. "Paintball?"

"You'll see," Jess says. "So you're on?"

"Yeah." I smile. "Always up for paintball."

*

Mel's booked out the entire paintball range—Rae isn't the only rich kid going to my school. We change into old T-shirts and jeans, gear up, and then spill out onto the big space. It's indoors, brightly lit, scattered with various barricades. They're going for a grunge, battlefield theme: camouflage and crates predominate. "The owners are pixies," Mel assures us. "They'll cover anything we do."

"So what's the plan?" We're in a paintball range, but no one's given me a gun yet. They're up to something.

"Well, I read up on witches," De begins. "You have this thing called—"

"Genesitic powers."

She looks surprised. Why is everyone surprised I know things? "Yeah. So our idea was, why not we teach you to use our powers?"

That catches me off guard. I hadn't been expecting that. "Seriously?" I say eagerly.

"Yep." Jess grins. She waves over Van, who's bearing four paintball guns. "We're going to start with invisibility. Unsubstantialness—the thing that lets me pass through walls and have no reflection—that's an innate thing, but invisibility is extrinsic, and it's totally useful."

"I'm not sure my mom would agree," I say, thinking of the new ways I'd be able to sneak out if I was invisible. "But okay, how do you turn invisible?"

"We thought we might start with a trial by fire." Jess' mouth quirks a bit evilly.

I stop. "Trial by fire?"

Mel grins. "Well, see, if you're invisible, we can't hit you."

"Wait..." Van hands out the guns. Four of them. "Guys..."

Jess raises her gun and shoots me point blank. I gasp as the ball slams into my gut, leaving a bright streak of blue and a guaranteed bruise. "Jess!"

Jess makes a gesture and they spread out across the field. "Our theory is that you can already do it; it just needs a reflex action to trigger it. So as long as we see you, we're going to attack you. Magic's all about channelling your energy to do what you what it to do." She vanishes for a split second. Her gun does too—that might be a problem.

"I don't know how to do that!"

"Figure it out." Visible again, she smiles a little evilly. "You have ten seconds to run."

Something in her expression tells me she's not kidding. Sucking in the residual pain still throbbing on my stomach, I bolt. "Ten!" Jess calls. "Nine!"

Okay, I think. How do I go invisible? My heart starts racing. I dash away from them, but they've spread out pretty well. Once I'm at a good distance, hidden by a pile of crates with a net hanging over my head, I pause for a moment, braced to run but thinking. I take stock of the arena—