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

Twenty-Two: Oh, The Cleverness Of Me!

"MORNING!"

If your friends have ever thrown you a surprise party, you'll know it's probably one of the best feelings in the world. The exception being a) when part of the surprise involves them waking you up at seven in the morning and/or b) if you wake up and find out they've plastered your walls with badly Photoshopped pictures of yourself.

"You guys." I groan and pull the blanket back over my head. "I literally just got out of the hospital. What the heck are you doing here?"

"You haven't been to school in almost a week since your fall," Mel explains. "De said she was helping Jess with some project thing—"

"And I'm getting really sick of Mel," Van adds. "So we thought we'd come see you!"

"Great. Come back in like—what time is it?—three hours."

Mel yanks my blanket away. "No! We are getting you up. Things haven't been going great lately, but that doesn't mean you can sleep yourself to death."

"Not to death. Just to ten."

"Come on." She hoists a big bag and dumps it on my legs. "We brought stuff."

It's only then that I take a closer look at my new wall decoration. My head's been Photoshopped onto various bodies. I don't recognise most of them; it's only when I see one that's distinctly Hermione that I realise they're all famous witches. Sabrina, Elphaba, Glinda, Ursula, the Evil Queen, Maleficent, the White Witch, the one from the Roald Dahl story, Bellatrix...

"You guys, when did you do this?"

"We printed them last night and stuck them up this morning," Mel beams. "Your mom helped out."

"And you sleep like a dead person," Van tells me. She freezes a moment later. "I mean—"

"I know," I say quickly. "It's okay. Forget it."

We have a lot of fun, actually—and it's easy to forget stuff when you're having fun. I make them have an Indy marathon with me, while gorging on every remotely unhealthy food in the house (the microwave either hates or loves us). A good dose of amnesia never hurt anyone, right? Esther who?

The curtains drawn to block out Muggles, Mel shows us her shapeshifting trick—I still haven't attempted that after the grade-A disaster that was the first time—and flaps around our heads. Then she shifts back and almost destroys our popcorn bowl by landing right on top of it. "Ow!" She yells, except she's half-transforming, so the first part of it comes as a high-pitched screech that's matched only by Van's scream as the popcorn flies all over her. "Let's do something else!" She huffs and folds her arms. Then she says something totally unexpected. "Vin, can you fly?"

I blink. "No." But immediately I'm excited. I mean, flying, right? Literally everyone's dream. How come I never thought of that? "Let's do it. How do I fly?"

"Uh... that's your job, right? Because seriously, the only flying I do is as a bat."

"You're so helpful, Melbourne."

"What? I'm being honest."

Van's eyes light up. "I have an idea." Now Van is a total Type B. She doesn't do decisions. And when she does, you usually want to start making sure all your insurance policies are up to date. She whispers in Mel's ear. Mel grins. Then she snatches my phone, turns into a bat, and darts up to the ceiling.

"Hey!"

Van smirks. "If you want it back..."

"I could always telekinesis my phone back, you know."