Life's a Witch!

Who Are We?

This was making me really uncomfortable. I knew not to lie to my parents. I mean, technically this wasn't a lie. Lina and I were going to the library. We just weren't working on our homework. We were doing a different kind of research.

"I bet we won't even find anything," I said as we walked in the doors to the old library.

"It's a palace full of books. There's gotta be something," Lina said.

I sighed and walked over to the counter with her. Lina wanted to get our hands dirty and do a bunch of research. We wanted to figure out who we were and what caused us to have the powers that we have. She figured if we knew who we were, we could better understand how to use our curse, powers, gifts, or whatever you want to call it.

We found ourselves at the library, instead of in front of my laptop, because like the good Christan parents they were, both my parents and Lina's parents had parental controls on our computers and phones. Every webpage we visited, our parents knew about. And if they saw me looking up stuff about witches, I knew there would be an even bigger problem than I already had.

My dad was already barely talking to me since he and my mom had their fight. Things were awkward at home. I'd much rather be out of there right now, away from all the tension.

"Hi, can I help you ladies?" the woman at the counter asked.

"Yeah. We're looking into what you've got on witches. But not witches who use spells. Witches who can use other kinds of magic," Lina said.

"Oh. What kind? I can filter by certain phrases in my computer here," said the woman.

"Levitation," I said. "People who can levitate things."

"Oh...okay. Let's see what I can find."

She typed into her computer and then proceeded to help us find a stack of books, many of which were fiction, but we were too embarrassed to say otherwise. Levitation? Actual people using levitation. It sounded so far-fetched.

We found a table all the way in the back, away from everyone. We sat there in silence for a while, pondering where to start on our stack of books.

"What if we're the only ones?" I whispered.

"We can't be," Lina said.

"I dunno. I think we are."

I closed my eyes and bowed my head. Dear Lord...

"Tabatha, what are you doing?" Lina asked, her voice laced with panic.

Please help us find the answers in these books here.

"Stop! Stop it! Tabatha!"

I'll be forever grateful if you can help me find the answers I need. I don't want to be an outcast.

I heard the rushed sounds of Lina lunging across the table to grab all the books that I knew were floating about.

"Amen," I said, opening my eyes.

The books that had been pulled out of the shelves were scattered all over the floor.

"Look at what you did! I thought you were trying to be discreet!" Lina said.

"Praying helps me calm down. You know that."

Lina sighed. "Let's just get this place cleaned up before we do anything else."

We bent down and started picking up the books one by one, exchanging glances when we realized there was no hope of us putting anything back in perfect alphabetical order. We tried to at least get everything back on the shelves as neatly as possible.

"Hey, what gives?" I said, trying to shove a few books into place.

"What's up?" Lina asked.

"These won't go back onto the shelf all the way."

Lina peered into the shelf and said, "Because there's a book behind there, dummy."

I took the stack of books out and saw an old brown book stuffed sideways against the back of the shelf. It blended right in. No wonder I didn't see it. I put my books down and pulled out this one.

"No way. Stop," Lina said.

The author was J. L. Brooks. The title was God Made Me a Witch. But it wasn't the author. It wasn't the title. It was the drawing on the cover. The girl on the cover...

"She looks just like you!" Lina said.

"No, look at the birthmark under her right eye!" I said.

Lina looked closer. "Wow. That's spooky."

"Lina," I said, trying to catch my breath. "That is me!"