Spells and Sorcery

Chapter Five

By the time I made it back to school, I'd missed most of French, and Ms. Benoit wouldn't let me take the test in the last few minutes. I slunk to the back of the room, sweaty, red-faced, and angry. Not only was my magic on the fritz, I was failing French.

Not even Mills and learning about the Rhode Island colony could pull me from my distracted focus. I spent most of the class staring at my fingers and imagining I saw purple sparks. When Mills called on me to answer a question, I stuttered stupidly for an eternity before he chided me for not paying attention and moved on to someone else.

When my day from hell finally ended, I trudged out to Marie's car, praying she hadn't left me. As I waited by her gleaming red car, I wondered if she'd used magic to make it. When I turned sixteen, would I be able to snap my fingers and get a Porsche?

I stared at my fingers and groaned. I couldn't even summon a book; a car was a far-off fantasy.

Marie was alone when she deigned to grace me with her presence, and for that, I was grateful. She and I clambered inside and said nothing to each other for over half the ride home. But my face must've betrayed my mood, because Marie turned down the music and snapped, "What's your problem?"

"Nothing."

"Are you pissed off because nobody sang you happy birthday?"

I made a noncommittal noise and looked at my fingers. "So, magic."

"What about it?"

"You have it?"

I felt her side-eye from across the car. "What's your point?"

"I mean, do you have it like me, or do you have it like Nicole? She said you're a healer."

A pause. "Nicole's the only one who can't summon and conjure."

"Oh."

More silence between us. I ran my fingers along the leather on the car door and imagined how Marie might've created it. "So did you click your fingers and this car appeared or what?"

"Oh my God, Lexie, you're such an idiot," Marie said with a giggle. "You can't just make stuff appear. Don't you know anything?"

I bristled. "Considering no one had the courtesy to tell me about magic before two days ago..."

"I know, and it was so much fun to do magic around you," Marie said, twirling a lock of her hair. "You were such a moron."

I didn't take the bait.

"I can feel you practicing magic, you know. Wonder if Jeanie would want to know about it..."

"Come on, Marie, you know I can't control it."

"And why not? It's so easy."

"Oh yeah?" I said, lacking a better comeback.

Marie knew she'd won this round, and smiled smugly. "I thought you could do everything."

"I never said I could."

"Sure act like it."

"Well, I can't do this, obviously."

"Obviously."

We spent the rest of the drive in silence. I shouldn't have expected Marie would help me, but it pissed me off that she'd been so...herself. For once, couldn't my sister be a bit more selfless?

She parked in front of our house, and I couldn't get out of the car soon enough.

"Hey," Marie said, rolling down the window. "Tell Jeanie I won't be home for dinner."