The Trouble with Secrets by Lexi Connor

Author:Lexi Connor [Connor, Lexi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-545-29895-7
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2009-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

After dinner and homework time that night, B showered early and got into her pajamas. She crawled under the covers, and Nightshade, recognizing his usual invitation, jumped up and started kneading her belly with his paws.

“Geez, cat,” she told him, scratching between his ears, “I’m not a pillow.”

After reading for a while, she turned off the light and lay in the dark, worrying about George. Finally she picked up the phone.

“George isn’t feeling well, B,” his mother told her. “Let me check to see if he can take your call.”

When he came on the line, George’s voice sounded thin and raspy, like he was 110 instead of 11 years old. “H-hullo?”

“What’s the matter with you?” B asked. “You sound terrible!”

“I’m sick.” He wheezed. “It’s getting worse. The witch’s curse did me in.”

“Oh, for the love of chocolate,” B said. “Stop being so melodramatic! One teensy little cold, and you’re getting hysterical!”

George didn’t say anything. He only coughed.

B fumed. Here she was, calling to be a comforting friend, but that stupid curse kept getting in the way.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, anyway,” she said.

“Doubt it,” George said. “I’ll probably be under quarantine.”

B gave up. “If you say so,” she snapped. “G’night.”

“It’s been nice knowing you, B,” George said gloomily. “You can have my lucky soccer ball. You know. Just in case.”

“Good night, George.”

“ ’Night.”

B hung up the phone, then thumped her mattress with her fists. “Aaaargh!” Nightshade stalked away in disgust, the tip of his tail refusing to curl.

B lay in her bed for a long time, thinking. This had to stop. She wasn’t about to let magic, real or fake, come between her and her closest, best, most loyal friend. And the first order of business was to get rid of Enchantress Le Fay’s fake curse. The only question was how.

Sure enough, the next day George was absent from school. B spent the morning debating with herself what to do about him. By the end of English class, she’d made up her mind. She hung back after class to corner Mr. Bishop.

“What’s on your mind, B?” he asked after the room had cleared.

“It’s George,” she said. “I need your help.” B explained about Enchantress Le Fay casting a bogus curse on George at the fair, and about how George had been on a downward spiral ever since. “I’ve tried to use magic — and just plain old friendship — to cheer him up, but so far nothing’s worked.”

Mr. Bishop straightened his eggplant-colored sweater. “What would you like me to do about it, B?”

B wasn’t sure she had an answer. He was a witch, wasn’t he? An expert? He should know what to do.

“Well,” B said, “I’ve been wondering. You said that witches couldn’t be public about their powers without breaking all the rules. Right?”

Her magic tutor nodded.

“Could it be possible that Enchantress Le Fay is a real witch after all, hiding behind the costume of a fake one? Because as soon as she cursed him, bad things really did start happening.

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