“W-what are you doing?”
Lolli stared up at Iris with her beady red eyes and sniffed. Iris wasn’t sure what to do—she’d never had physical contact with Lolli before—so she stroked the mouse’s minuscule head with her index finger.
Happiness radiated up from the tiny creature.
“I knew it! You stole her!”
Nyala stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips. Her face was hard with fury.
“Oh, hey, Nyala! I just found her, like right this second. She was hiding in my dresser… well, on, technically, except she was inside a… never mind, here.”
Iris reached into her shirt pocket and cradled the soft, warm mouse with her fingertips. She transferred her ever-so-gently to her sister.
Cocooned in Nyala’s hands, Lolli McScuffle Pants blinked up at Iris. Iris blinked back. She felt sad all of a sudden… why?
Wait. Could Lolli be her familiar?
No way.
Or maybe yes way?
Iris coughed. “Yeah. So, hey, Nyala? You should close your door whenever you clean her cage, and make sure the cats aren’t in there with you.”
“Thank you for stating the obvious, Ms. I’m-the-Boss-of-Everybody!”
“Thank you for finding Lolli McScuffle Pants, Iris. You’re welcome, Nyala.”
“Ugh! You are such a—you know what!” Nyala whirled around and stormed out of the room.
Argh… little sisters.
Iris knew she should cut Nyala some slack, though, considering. She and Dad had been extra-super-close. But honestly, Nyala had always shown Iris attitude, and now that she was in middle school, it was probably going to get worse. (Iris had to admit that she may have been that way herself, with Kedren.)
Sometimes, a dark mood bubbled up inside Iris and she wished that their parents had never adopted Nyala and Ephrem. Well, Ephrem, maybe, but not Nyala. In any case, whenever she had this bad, terrible thought, she would immediately chase it away with a reversal spell from Callixta’s book; Iris was irrationally afraid that her own magical powers, her intention, might make her anger-wish come true. And she obviously didn’t want that. She loved her brother and sister. Most days.
Lolli. Iris felt that sad feeling again, being parted from her. Gah. So Lolli must be her familiar. Which meant that she needed to convince Nyala to give her up and let her live in Iris’s room.
Should Iris bribe her? But if she acted like she wanted Lolli, Nyala would be doubly determined not to give up her pet. Maybe Iris should cast a spell on Nyala? That seemed like a bad idea, too. She’d have to think about how best to do this.
Sighing, Iris leaned over her desk and refreshed her laptop screen. The two leaders of the High Council were still trash-talking each other. Behind them, their respective coterie of guards had gathered, brandishing various enchanted weapons—everything from wands to swords to spears to thunderwhips.
“But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t brave… oh yeah, ooo-ooo, la la la la la la…” Iris sang.
Her phone chimed just then. A message popped up, indicating that she had a Facebook friend request.
Iris logged into her Facebook account, which she hardly ever used because she hardly ever got any “likes,” and she had so few FB friends as it was. Someone named Aysha Rodriguez had requested to be her friend. Iris checked out her profile photo. Oh yeah. Aysha was in her English class.
Wow! Iris thought as she accepted the friend request. The last time she’d had a friend request was… well, she couldn’t even remember.
A moment later, a message came through from Aysha:
Hey, Iris! Thanks for accepting my friend request. I loved your comment about teapots in Dalrymple’s class! Ha! So I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch tomorrow. (I have A-lunch.)
Iris smiled in surprise. People at this school were so nice!
Hey, Aysha! I do have A-lunch, and yes, I’d love to have lunch with you!
Aysha replied:
Fun! I can introduce you to my friends Mira and Div, you’ll like them. I thought I’d invite this other new girl to join us. Her name’s Penelope, she’s in our English class, too. I think the five of us might have a lot in common. K bye!
“Wow!” Iris said out loud. She busted out a spontaneous dance move and accidentally crushed a Pasta-in-a-Cup container with her foot. So much for graceful. Just this morning, she’d wanted to vomit all over the hallway because she was so nervous about being in a new school, a new city, a new coast. But since then, she’d made a couple of friends (a real one—a witch!—and a Facebook one) and was well on her way to making even more friends.
She was about to return to her game when a text came in from an unfamiliar number:
Hi, it’s me, Greta!
Greta! Friend #2! Iris busted out another dance move. She’d given Greta her number at Poe’s Market earlier.
The text continued:
I’m really glad we met today! Do you have A-lunch? If so do you want to have lunch together tomorrow?
Iris’s eyes grew wide. Now she had two lunch invitations for tomorrow! How would she be able to choose? But she had no choice; she’d already said yes to Aysha.
Or maybe she could be creative? The lunch period was approximately forty-five minutes long. That meant she could have two twenty-two-and-a-half-minute-long lunches, right?
Iris wrote:
Lunch is good but I might be a little late if that’s okay?
Greta wrote back:
Of course! I usually eat in the courtyard under the purple flower tree so just meet me when you can. I’ll see if my friends Binx and Ridley are free, too.
“Sure!” Iris said out loud.
She started to type XOXO, then deleted it, then retyped it, then re-deleted it. She didn’t want to come across as one of those desperate fan-girly girls, even though Greta did make her feel kind of fan-girly. After all, she’d saved Iris from those three Antima bullies. Plus she was a supercool witch. Plus she smelled like lavender.
There were no further texts. Iris returned to her game.
Life in Sorrow Point
