Spelled by Anne Eastwick

Author:Anne Eastwick [Eastwick, Anne & Hudson, Angela M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oakland Press
Published: 2018-09-02T23:00:00+00:00

10

Hide & Seek but Do Not Peek

Mom passed us on the stairwell and rolled her eyes when I screamed and jumped to break free from Henry’s spider grip. He wiggled his fingertips against my ribs quickly, rendering me powerless to do anything but giggle.

“That’s not fair!” I shoved him in the chest and sat down on the step, curling into a ball. “You crept up on me.”

“You set the challenge, Willa.” He laid one arm along the balustrade, his gleaming open smile worth a thousand dollars. “Don’t complain because you lost.”

“But that’s not fair. My mom undid my spell.”

“Well it’s not fair to use magic in a game of hide and seek with a mortal, Willa,” she said from the den.

I huffed at Henry, my cranky face on, and he backed down the stairs, still wearing that grin. “Come on. We should get this party stuff done. I need to get home and change into Dan.”

“Who’s Dan?” my mom asked, coming back up the stairs to turn thin air into spiders’ webs and nasty-looking crawlies.

“Um.” I looked at Henry for help. If I lied, Mom would know. And I really didn’t want to tell her I’d made up a fake date to throw a boy off the fact that I liked him, almost as much as I didn’t want to fart fire in front of Henry. He’d been waiting for a moment like this. As far as he was concerned, seeing a girl fart would be hilarious. Seeing it set her butt on fire would be priceless.

“He’s a character from a comic book I’m reading,” he said, looking a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t have to lie.

“Oh, okay,” Mom said. “And Willa, what are you going as?”

“Cinderella,” Henry answered for me.

I scowled at him.

“Oh, really?” Mom lit up like a Christmas tree. “Well, I’m glad to hear that, Willa, you’ll look so pretty.” Her face changed then and she frowned. “I don’t recall seeing a dress—”

“It’s at my house,” Henry jumped in quickly. “We were planning to get ready over there, like girlfriends.”

Mom’s sharp brow cornered on her forehead and a very thin cloud of steam came from her ears. “That’s a no, Willa.” She looked at me. “You get dressed here, away from boys, and that’s final.”

“Okay.” I nodded, ignoring Henry’s apologetic wince.

Mom blew the last of her steam out of her nose and went up the stairs, disappearing into her room.

Henry looked at me. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be.” I stood up. “Come on, you can watch me bring mannequin hands to life.”

“To life?”

“Yeah. Did you ever see The Addams Family—with that creeping hand called Thing?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well, it was a living hand without a body.”

“Cool.” He followed me down the stairs, lifting his hand off the balustrade when he nearly touched a web. Then he stopped a moment and put his nose right up to it. “Is that real?”

“The web?”

“No, the spider.”

“Oh. Um. No. Why?”

“It’s moving.”

“Yep.” I laughed, waiting for him at the base of the steps. “That’s magic. Cool, huh?”

He jumped back when it leaped toward him, taking the rest of the stairs a bit too fast.

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