What the hex?
“Iris?”
Mrs. Feathers was next to her, bending down with a worried expression. Iris scooted back from the bookshelf and stood up, wobbly and dazed. She inspected her fingers; there was no burn mark, and no pain, either. In fact, they felt perfectly cool.
Had she had an SPD moment? This was happening to her more and more lately. She’d touch some object, and weird mental images would come rushing at her.
“Sorry! I was looking for the… and I accidentally touched a hot… except I think it was probably cold or regular temperature, and my brain went into… Never mind, I have to get to my French class.”
Mrs. Feathers glanced at Iris’s hand, her brow wrinkled in concern. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? I think there might be an old baseboard under there. Do you need to see the nurse?”
“No, I’m good. Bye, au revoir!”
Iris saluted (why?) and headed into the crowded hallway. She pulled her schedule out of her backpack side pocket; what room was her French class in? Room 291R. Her brain was still a little bit buzzy and prickly. She wished there were a permanent magical cure for her SPD, and for her anxiety disorder, too (which also had initials—GAD, for Generalized Anxiety Disorder). But she didn’t remember seeing anything like that in Callixta’s witchcraft manual.
Of course, Callixta said that magic was mainly about intention. If a witch could powerfully and deliberately think a thing, she or he or they could make it so. Spells, potions, mirrors, wands, and such were mostly just ways to enhance and channel the magical energy of the intentions. So maybe Iris just needed to, well, intend more strongly?
Make my SPD and GAD go away… NOW! N-O-W! I MEAN it! she thought, squeezing her fists.
Nope. Still the same. Big surprise. (She’d tried this before, many times.)
Sighing, she headed down the hall toward what she hoped was Room 291R, where a familiar-looking girl rushed past her in a navy-and-white Juilliard hoodie. It was one of the three girls who’d been checking her out that morning.
Iris watched as the girl went into Room 291R. So they were going to be in the same French class.
Iris decided to sit far away from her, just in case.
6 SMACKDOWN
Covens should be united against their common enemies.
(FROM THE GOOD BOOK OF MAGIC AND MENTALISM BY CALLIXTA CROWE)
By lunchtime, Binx still hadn’t heard back from Mira or Aysha. Jerks. But no matter. She had the next forty-five minutes to track them down and force a confession out of them. She’d magically hacked into their class schedules and confirmed that they had A-lunch, too, so locating them shouldn’t be too difficult.
She also hadn’t heard back from Greta and Ridley re: her brilliant detective work about Iris Gooding. Whatever… They could discuss what to do about Iris over lunch after they’d dealt with the Triad.
Binx made her way down the main hall toward the cafeteria. Posters about homecoming, clubs, and athletics plastered the elegant cream walls. (She noticed that fencing tryouts were in November… Excellent. She’d always wanted to take up the sport.) A maroon WELCOME BACK, STUDENTS! banner hung cheerily from the high, molded plaster ceiling. The building, she’d heard, used to be a fancy resort in the late nineteenth century. Then it was closed and boarded up for decades. Then it was eventually reincarnated as Sorrow Point High. (The mood was very The Breakfast Club meets The Shining.)
I wonder if there are ghosts here, Binx thought, then chuckled to herself. She didn’t believe in ghosts. Witches, yeah, but not ghosts.
As she neared the cafeteria, she spotted Jennifer Liu and Joel Katz semi-hidden behind a fake potted palm tree, kissing. Ew. JennJo had been dating since kindergarten, practically, but get a room! Then she saw that approaching them from the other direction were… yessss! Mira and Aysha. Perfect timing.
Binx was about to call out to them, but before she could, they sauntered over to JennJo like a pair of hungry panthers that had just found their prey. Aysha murmured some words under her breath. Then she flipped one of her boxer braids over her shoulder and touched Joel’s arm.
“Hey, sweetie. Love your shirt. Really shows off your pecs.”
Aysha’s hand snaked up to Joel’s collar, and she pulled him toward her. His body peeled away from Jennifer’s, propelled toward Aysha’s as though magnetized. Jennifer’s jaw dropped. Mira watched, smirking.
“Hey, Aysh. How’s it going?” Joel said dreamily.
“Better now that you’re here, baby,” Aysha cooed.
“Ex-cuse me!” Jennifer put her hands on her hips. “Aysha, what do you think you’re doing? Joel, get away from her!”
“But she’s way hotter than you,” Joel pointed out matter-of-factly.
Jennifer’s chin quivered. She looked as though she were about to burst into tears. “H-how can you say that? W-why are you being so m-mean?”
“I’m not being mean, I’m just being honest.”
Jennifer gasped and folded her arms across her chest. She started to say something, then ran off, her shoulders shaking with sobs.
Aysha and Mira cracked up as they watched Jennifer flee. “Come here, princess,” Joel murmured to Aysha, leaning in for a kiss.
Aysha put her hand on his chest and pushed him lightly. “Yeah, no, that’s not happening. You’re kind of a loser.”
“Uh…”
Joel wandered off with a dazed expression. Binx rolled her eyes; this was classic Triad nonsense. Where had they learned how to do that, anyway? She didn’t remember any unshipping spells in C-Squared’s book.
For a second, Binx toyed with the idea of trying a counterspell on JennJo (they might be the poster couple for obnoxious PDA, but they didn’t deserve this), then changed her mind; she had important business to attend to, and besides, she didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks (unlike the bagel, which had been very necessary).
Binx caught Mira’s and Aysha’s attention and motioned them into a nearby alcove. The alcove contained
