Burned

Chapter Thirty-Three

Today was going to be good, or so I was telling myself. It was Friday the thirteenth, a day dedicated to Witches, (that and Halloween) which was the only reason I was going to school today. My mom had given me a free pass when I told her what happened yesterday. I should rephrase that, I told my mom a girl attacked me in the hallway, but I didn't go into specifics. It was better that way. I didn't want to be a hypocrite and tell my mom when Daniel couldn't tell anyone. I thought that was fair.

Regardless, she had given the "okay" for me to skip this particular Friday. Then, Kate and Ivelyn convinced me to go. Ivelyn was throwing a party tonight in honor of today. It was a holiday anytime the thirteenth landed on a Friday. I had to say, it would be nice to relax with my friends. I think it shocked Ivelyn when I told her I would go. She and Daniel both were surprised to see me taking time off from the Curse. I was feeling good about breaking the Curse.

Everything was translated and we had every ingredient, except for Lungwort. It was the last ingredient, then we could perform the spell. It made Kate anxious that it was down to one last thing, but I was proud. It wasn't every day we performed a spell like this. It felt tangible. The thought that I would have a human boyfriend soon, was intoxicating. Still, I had to get through today first. Honestly, I was a little worried about running into Giu again. 

To ease my nerves, Daniel offered to take me to school. It was in the car that I found out Giu wasn't going to be at school. She hadn't come home last night and neither Daniel or his mom knew where she was. Apparently, Daniel's mom: Nancy, called her siblings: Natalia, Nathan, and Naomi to see if anyone had heard from her. They all told her no, but she had confided in Daniel that she thought Natalia was lying. It was just the kind of thing Natalia would do -- it was her daughter after all.

"What did you tell your mom?" I was nervous about Daniel telling his mom. I didn't want to take the chance that his mom would be against breaking the Curse. We were too close to take a risk that big.

"Nothing, she asked me if I knew where Giu was and I told her I didn't," he shrugged. Giu was dead to Daniel or so he said. I kept my mouth shut on the topic. It was his family. I wasn't going to talk bad about any of them. I had learned my lesson about that before.

Daniel didn't talk about Giu for the rest of the day. Thankfully, the day went by quickly. You could feel the mood had shifted. Everyone, even the teachers, was ready for Summer vacation to start. People stopped carrying about mundane school things like tests, dress code, homework, etc. It was sunny out and people wanted to hurry up and go to Ivelyn's party. It was all anyone was talking about. It reminded me of the first party I had gone to in Salem, which of course had been Ivelyn's. It was a Halloween party and my birthday.

The second the final bell rang, everyone, shot up. There were cheers and screams of joy. The students had spoken and it was time to leave this place. Addie and I packed up our things and headed to the parking lot. Everyone was in full party mode. The hallways were packed with people buzzing over the party. It wasn't for a couple of hours, but already people were getting ready. I needed to go home and change. I was planning on riding with Daniel and Addie. I wasn't sure if Erik was coming. I almost asked him in Math, but then I would have to ask if Sage was coming and I was afraid to ask.

If Addie knew she hadn't said anything. In fact, we barely talked about the party. I had asked her if she was going. Then, she asked if she could ride with me. I don't think she really wanted to go with me and Daniel. It was still a little awkward between her and Daniel, but she was trying to be supportive. That was all any of us could do. When we go to our lockers, she sighed heavily. I almost asked her what was wrong, but I stopped myself. I knew it was about her breaking up with Conner. This was going to be the first party since they had broken up. Conner hadn't met any of us -- that wasn't the point.