Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

FRANKIE

"Excuse me, young lady, but you cannot just march in here," Mr. Barrett snapped. "And these two are suspended."

The girl with curly black hair pulled a wand out of her back pocket and tapped the tip against the glass door behind her. The air pulsed and shimmered. Something sparkled. When I looked, I found the other girl had also pulled a wand out and was using it to shred papers, except the papers were shredding into speckles of dust that evaporated.

"Now, now, Mr. Barrett . . ." the girl in the middle flicked her wrist and the pentacle hanging at the end of her gold chain began to swing left to right and back again. She smiled sweetly. "You're not going to suspend these two students from school."

Mr. Barrett's face went blank. His eyes seemed to glaze over. "I'm not going to suspend these two students from school."

"They're new here and are therefore prey for the predatory bullies," she chanted softly. Her cheeks flushed a faint pink. "And you don't blame them for defending themselves in the face of danger. You're going to let them off with a warning and ten community service hours."

Mr. Barrett blinked, then looked to us. "Miss Proctor and Mr. Mann, I understand that you're new here and the other students have been bullying you relentlessly, and while I cannot condone violence, I must say I don't blame you for defending yourselves."

My eyes widened. This dude was literally about to suspend us and now he wasn't. I eyed the three girls. They were calm and steady. The two with wands were doing something. Light twinkled from the tips of their wands as they moved them around. The girl with the cool pentacle charm seemed to be hypnotizing the Dean, except not quite because he wasn't repeating her word for word. It was strange. I wanted to ask about it.

Archie smiled at the ground. His dark-red hair was sticking out in every direction.

Mr. Barrett sighed. "But I cannot just let this slide without any repercussions. So, I'm giving you ten community service hours to be completed by the end of the month. Each. If you fail to provide the required proof, you will then get detention for a week. Understood?"

I glanced up to the three girls, then back to him. "Yes?"

Archie jumped to his feet. "Thank you for being so understanding, Mr. Barrett."

"Please try to stay out of any more fights, or I will be forced to be much stricter."

I stood and nodded. "Understood."

He gestured for the door. "Go ahead, get to lunch."

"Thanks, Mr. Barrett." The girl with the pentacle charm winked at me, then spun and walked out the door of the Dean's office. "C'mon, guys."

Archie and I followed the three of them out into the main hallway, which was still empty and eerily quiet.

The girl with pretty brown skin handed me my backpack, then pointed behind her. "Get changed in there."

"Okay." I looked over to Archie only to find him hurrying into the guy's bathroom with his backpack. I gave the girls a tentative smile. "Be right out."

I practically flew through the bathroom door and into the first stall. It wasn't until I opened my backpack and found my regular clothes folded neatly inside that I remembered I hadn't put them in there. Coach Andrews had given me a locker in the locker room with a lock. My clothes had been folded on the shelf inside and my backpack sat below. With a scowl, I peeled my gym clothes off and put my jean shorts and white tank top back on. My button-down shirt was tied around my hips. I shoved my gym clothes in my bag and sprinted back into the hall to find Archie and the three girls waiting for me.

The girl with curly black hair and gray eyes looked me up and down and then nodded. "Let's get to lunch." She led our little group out the main door and onto the sidewalk.

"Hey, um, how'd you get my stuff out of my locker?"

Ms. Curls gave me a smirk over her shoulder and held her wand up. "Magic."

"Oh. Right." That didn't entirely clear things up for me, but since they just got me out of a school suspension, I was going to let it slide.

She chuckled. "It was a bit of an invasion of your space and all, but I figured you wouldn't want to go back into the locker room and be ambushed by the other students. And who wants to eat lunch in their PE uniform?"

"Especially covered in clay," Ms. Yellow Eyes wagged her eyebrows. Her dark hair was buzzed short on the sides, basically blending in with her dark skin. But the long strands on top had caramel-colored streaks in them. " And a little blood."

The girl with the pentacle charm threw her head back and laughed. " You done messed up, Ay-ay-ron. Goddess, I haven't heard anyone say that to him in years. It did not disappoint."

"Wait." I stopped short and the others stopped with me. "You're not mad?"

They all frowned, even Archie.

"I mean . . . I used magic on Aaron?—"

"That wasn't intentional?—"

"How do you know?"

Ms. Curls scowled. Her gray eyes were sharp. "Gut feeling?"

"Oh." I chuckled. "Good call. I have no idea how that happened."

"Yeah, your face pretty much told us that." She grinned. "Why would you think we're mad?"

I threw my hands up. "I don't know. I'm new to this world of magic. Guess I thought you were gonna rough me up or something . . . or threaten me? I mean, I was getting some nasty glares on the field."

She shook her head. "Pink, those were not for you."

"We were glaring at the jackasses who attacked you," Ms. Yellow Eyes gestured toward the office, "because their behavior was abominable."

"Yeah, you were amazing." She gestured for me to keep walking. "C'mon, word will spread fast about this, so let's get to lunch before the bell rings."

"Right, sorry." I fell into step with them. "Not that I dislike the nickname Pink or anything, but my name is Frankie?—"

"Proctor. We heard," Ms. Curls said with a wide smile. She reached over to shake my hand while we walked. "I'm Esther Goldstein. Welcome to Tampa."

The girl with the dark-brown skin stepped up beside me and held her hand out. "And I'm Ava Miller."

"Hi, Ava. Did you intentionally match the caramel in your hair to your eyes?"

"Pink gets it. We're gonna be friends, I can tell." She cackled. Then she pointed to the third girl. "This here is Birdie Buckley. She's the quiet type, but when we need her to pull her tricks with that talisman of hers, she slays."

Talisman? I made a mental note to ask about that later, because I definitely had questions.

"Well, thanks for bailing us out." I cleared my throat. "Community service was a nice touch?—"

"Oh, you won't have to do that." Esther waved her hand. "My mom will sign off on it, especially once she hears why you got in trouble and how you kicked their asses. No big deal."

"Well, again, thank you. I appreciate it . . . since you don't even know me."

Ava wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "We don't have to know you, Pink. Arcana protects arcana. We have to have each others' backs out there or we'll never survive."

"Ava, personal space?" Birdie gestured wildly in my direction. "She's a Proctor, and you're looking like a chaser right now."

Ava gasped. " Birdie. "

Esther snickered under her breath. Birdie shrugged.

"What's a chaser?"

Archie chuckled. "A chaser is a civilian who clout-chases after founding families or anyone in a seat of power or importance."

"The Proctors were a founding family, which means you're important and powerful." Birdie pointed to Esther. "She's also from a founding family on her mom's side."

Esther smirked. "Which means I get to hide among the crowd like I have an alias."

"This is weird. My last name never had so much importance before now." I shivered at the weirdness of this information. "Still not sure I grasp what a founding family fully is."

"Don't worry. We'll help you." Archie smiled up at me. "I mean, I owe you."

I grimaced as we turned onto a covered sidewalk. "I really hate bullies. Those guys are a piece of work. What's their problem?"

Esther rolled her eyes. "Aaron and Jacob have always been cocky assholes."

"Yeah, but they got worse," Ava grumbled.

I frowned. "Why did they get worse? And when? Was it me?"

Birdie scoffed. "No. Sadly."

Archie nodded. "It was me. They're very threatened."

Everyone laughed.

Esther shook her head and almost growled. "It's a power trip."

I bit my bottom lip. "I feel like I'm missing something?"

She sighed. "I know you're new here, but do you know about The Coven?"

"Big, scary, powerful witches who are in charge?"

They all nodded.

"Okay, so what? They part of The Coven or something?"

Esther laughed in a short burst. "They wish."

"Oh." I scowled.

"See, thing is, Frankie . . . The Coven lived here." Esther paused as we rounded another corner. "They went to school here with us. They lived in our neighborhood. They're our age. We grew up with them. Sure, we didn't hang out a ton with them, but that's not their fault. Hard to have something in common with civilian teenagers discussing parties and prom when you're fighting demons and trying to keep the rest of the world alive, ya know?"

I nodded. "Shit. Yeah, I imagine that had to be hard for them."

"It was. I'm sure. Not that they would've ever admitted it. Now, some of them were cool as shit and super chill. They hung out with us from time to time."

"Oh, like who?" I wanted to make a mental note of the easy, chill Coven-members in case I ever met them.

"Henley and Royce Redd, for sure." Ava nodded thoughtfully. "They're siblings."

"Easton . . . especially when he was a slut." Birdie blushed.

The girls all giggled.

"Now he's with Lily, who is mad chill and also in The Coven, but you can't blame the girl for giving the rest of us the cold shoulder when a lot of us used to hook up with her boyfriend." Birdie grinned. "Some of us more than others."

Ava shrugged. "No regrets. Whenever and whatever he wanted. Besides, I'm taken now too."

Archie scowled. "You used to hook up with Easton?"

"I mean, like twice right before he finally convinced Lily to be exclusive with him." Ava shook her head. "I never expected monogamy to last for him."

I looked to Archie. "Do you know them too?"

"They left town before the great Archibald Mann arrived." He grinned.

"Everyone in our world knows who they are, Frankie. They're like famous for us." Esther looked to me with a smile. "You'll know all their names in no time?—"

"Oh, Willow and Chutney were nice." Ava snapped her fingers. "But shy and a little suspicious of everything that moved, so they tended to stay in the middle of their Coven-mates."

Esther reached up and pinned her black curls on top of her head with a clip. "Point I was trying to make is that when The Coven lived here—for the last twelve years—no one tried anything. No one fucked around because no one wanted to find out . . . from him. "

"Who?"

"Tennessee," all three of them said in perfect unison.

Archie flinched, which was apparently the appropriate response because the girls nodded.

I narrowed my eyes. "And which one is he again? I know my aunt and uncle said that name and it's not one you forget hearing, but I've learned so much information in a matter of hours that it's not all sticking."

"That's super understandable. And Tennessee is the Emperor." Esther squeezed my arm. "And while he wasn't Coven Leader until after they left Tampa, everyone treated him as such because, historically, the Emperor is always one of the Leaders. Dude may be drop dead gorgeous, but he's the single most terrifying person I have ever met."

Ava and Birdie nodded, then shuddered.

"So, he's an asshole?"

"Not even a little bit," Esther answered immediately. "He's actually a super nice guy. Very respectful. Like everything you wouldn't expect from the Emperor. But he is."

"He really is," Birdie echoed.

"Like we could go on and on with examples of just how good of a person he is—but it's a long list. Trust us." Esther made a funny face. "But he's also equally terrifying."

"But he's nice?"

" So nice, " all three of them said.

"And scary?"

" So scary, " they said in unison again.

I nodded. "And beautiful."

All three of the girls swooned. " So beautiful. "

"It's the eyes," Birdie said softly. "One is green, the other is blue."

"It's also the hair." Ava tugged on Esther's. "It's a lot like hers."

I looked Archie. "And what do you think of this Tennessee?"

"Oh, I don't know him the way they do." He blushed. "But when I see him in Eden he just seems stressed to me."

"Okay, so I get that this Emperor dude is nice, gorgeous, and terrifying— and stressed— but what does this have to do with tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum?"

Esther chuckled at their new nickname, then sobered. "All jokes aside, Tenn would never, ever let behavior like that slide. No one, including those asswads, would've dared try."

"Even if he wasn't nearby, his presence in this town was enough to keep everyone in line." Ava shuddered. "And I mean everyone. Even the adults were afraid to piss him off."

Esther pointed to her. "Exactly. So, while Tennessee Wildes was a resident of our town, Aaron and Jacob were on their best behavior."

Birdie scoffed. "Which meant they ran their mouths and gave attitude but never went too far to warrant Tenn's attention."

"But Tenn and The Coven left for Salem in October, and I guess they saw it as their window to lay claim to some stake of power, figuratively speaking."

"Ah, so like a power vacuum?"

They nodded.

Archie frowned. "Have you not informed him, or The Coven, about this?"

Esther shrugged as we slowed to a stop outside the cafeteria. "Honestly, I think we all hoped they'd calm down after a bit. But it's been getting bad, so we might have to report them, especially after what happened today with you."

"Whoa, hey now." I held both hands up. "I don't want the first thing they hear about me to be in the form of tattling. Snitches get stitches."

Esther scowled. "This kind of violence shouldn't be allowed?—"

"I agree. I just . . . Let's not rush into it, okay? Let's see what happens."

She pursed her lips, then nodded. "Okay, but I can't promise someone else won't tattle."

"What will be, will be?—"

"Heyyyy there, Pink!"

I turned toward the sound of my new nickname and found Tomás from PE strolling up to us with a wide grin that dimpled his cheeks. "Hi, Tomás?—"

" Oh mi Diosa. Recuerda mi nombre. " He pressed his hand to his chest and wagged his dark eyebrows at me. Then he reached out with his other hand and took mine, lifting it to kiss my knuckles. His brown eyes sparkled in the sunlight. " Hola, se?orita, eres un hermosa rayo de sol. Eres tan hermosa como un cielo al atardecer. "

" Gracias ? I think?" I smiled and pulled my hand back. "My Spanish is a little slow, something about the sun?"

"He said you're as beautiful as a sunset sky—or something like that." Esther smacked his shoulder. "Stop being gross. Introduce yourself."

"My apologies. I am Tomás Hernandez. It's nice to meet you."

"Frankie Proctor. Nice to meet you too."

"Let me get your food?—"

"Oh, that's not necessary?—"

" Diosa, yes, it is. You will be ambushed, the school already knows what you did to them, and they'll want to trample you in affection." Tomás grinned. "Please, really, give me your money if you want, and let me grab it for you from the line. Your first day has been intense enough already."

Esther sighed. "I'd let him, Frankie. Today at least."

"What about you guys?"

"My boyfriend is getting our food. He likes to help but he's a Cup, so he doesn't get as many chances." Ava hooked her arm around mine. "C'mon, let's sit."

Tomás stepped in front of us. "What would you like to eat? Pizza? Chicken nuggets? Burger?"

"Um . . ." I looked to Archie. "What do you like here?"

"The pizza is delivered."

"Pizza it is then. And a coke if they have it? Thank you, Tomás. How much do I owe you?"

He frowned, then gave me a big smile. "I don't remember. I use my card. I will let you know. Promise. Archie, you want the same?"

"I can get my own?—"

"No way, mi amigo. I got you too." He gave us two thumbs-up, then skipped through the cafeteria doors.

Esther chuckled. "I think you've got an admirer already, Franks."

I grinned. "Did you just call me Franks?"

She pursed her lips. "I think I did. Is that weird?"

"Nah. My uncle calls me Franks. I like it."

Birdie's stomach growled so loud we all jumped. She grimaced. "I dropped my breakfast burrito this morning. I'm starving."

"Look, Seamus is already there with our food. C'mon." Ava tugged me into a skip.

Together, we all crossed the grassy area over to a small section of picnic tables that were nestled beneath some sprawling oak trees. It was shady and looked cool. As we approached the table, a golden retriever puppy popped up from the ground to greet us.

I gasped. "PUPPY!"

The dog lunged for me, taking me down to my knees in a split second. He licked my face and wagged his tail a mile a minute.

"Rootbeer!" Ava dragged the puppy off of me. "Crazy girl, what has gotten into you?"

I giggled and ran my hands through her golden fur. "Dogs tend to react like that to me. I don't know why—wait. Hold up, is she a service dog?" I tapped on the harness with the words ‘ SERVICE DOG' written on it in bold letters.

Ava sighed. "Yes, she is, but?—"

"She's friendly," a deep male voice said from close by. When I stood up, I found a tall boy with ginger red hair, matching freckles, and big blue eyes staring down at me. He held his hand out. "I'm Seamus O'Brien."

I shook his hand. "Frankie Proctor. Sorry, I didn't know she was a service dog?—"

"No, it's okay. She knows when she gets out here to these tables that she's allowed to be her silly puppy self. She's so friendly. I have to give her friend breaks." He turned his head to the side and tapped on a little skin-colored device strapped to his ear. "I'm mostly deaf. Rootbeer is my second set of ears, because if it's not in front of me, I am not going to hear it."

"His hearing aids work really well most days and he reads lips." Ava stepped up and kissed him on the lips, then turned back to me. "And he's my boyfriend."

"OH. Cool. So, do you know ASL?" I asked while signing with my hands.

His smile spread wider until it crinkled his eyes. He lifted his hands and signed back, " Yes I do! Most people don't around here so I stopped asking."

That was sad. " Well I do."

"That is awesome."

"Where's my baby?" Ava frowned and walked around Seamus, then squealed. She bent over and picked up a big, fluffy white bunny. "Frankie, this is my girl Float."

I opened my mouth, then shut it. "Float? As in she floats?"

"YES!" Ava giggled.

Archie chuckled and sat down at the table beside Esther. "Rootbeer float."

I moved to take the seat next to Archie. "There's a story there."

Seamus turned to Ava. " Go ahead, my love. Tell them," he signed.

She blew him a kiss, then sat across from me with her bunny still cuddled up in her chest. "So, Seamus and I both moved here like two years ago. We both already had our pets. I named her Float because she floats. He named her Rootbeer because when he first got her as a baby, she kept bringing him cans of root beer."

I snort-laughed.

"When we met and discovered their names, we made a joke that we had to be best friends." Ava swooned. "And then our girls became inseparable so we decided we'd just have to get married because we cannot separate them."

"It's science," Seamus signed to me.

"That's amazing," I said while also signing it.

Birdie snatched a burger off the tray in front of Seamus, then sat cross-legged on the tabletop next to us. "This burger is amazing right now."

"Hey, Pink!"

I jumped and glanced over my shoulder—and had to stifle a gasp. Those two cool girls were walking up to us, and they looked even cooler than before now that they weren't in PE uniforms. Madge looked sharp and chic in an all-black crop top and miniskirt ensemble with red strappy sandals. She looked expensive. Beside her, Jo wore a black knit beanie with a sweater vest made of the same black material. She wasn't wearing anything under the sweater so both of their matching tattoos were on full display—and I noticed they each had another yellow crystal inked on the center of their chests. Jo was putting on a pair of pentacle-shaped earrings that were a few inches long. I wasn't an earring girl, I tended to rip them out on accident, but I was a huge fan of the curved bone charm hanging from her leather necklace.

"Welcome to our little gang, Pink," Madge said with a smirk. She held her hand out for me to shake. "And nice work with those dickbags today."

"Thank you. I'm Frankie." I shook her hand.

"Madge Sullivan." She gestured toward her bestie. "This is my soulmate, Jo?—"

" Bonjour, chérie ." Jo leaned forward and kissed each of my cheeks, then sat down across from Esther. " Je m'appelle Joséphine C?té. Mais vous pouvez m'appeler Jo. "

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. For a second, I just stared. "Shit, was that French?"

" Merde, désolé. Oui, je suis fran?ais. Je viens de Paris. " She grimaced. " Je ne parle pas bien l'anglais."

"I got the shit, sorry part." I grinned. "And okay, the from Paris part too. Did you say to call you Jo?"

" Oui. "

"But you understand English?"

"Oui, je comprends l'anglais."

Madge tugged on one of Jo's braids gently. "Luckily, I speak French, so I translate."

Jo arched one eyebrow. "Tu mens."

"I do not lie." She scoffed. "I didn't say I speak French as beautifully and fluently as you , but I do speak it enough to translate what you're saying."

Jo just sighed.

I leaned forward. "I can understand most Spanish when it's spoken to me, but getting my own words out in Spanish is a nightmare."

Jo gasped. She slammed her hands on the table. " Merci! Il est tellement plus difficile de dire les mots!"

Madge squeezed Jo's hand. "She is agreeing with you, Pink."

Tomás returned then with our food. He gave me a flirty wink and slid onto the bench at the table across from us. "What did I miss?"

"What did you miss?" Seamus cursed. "I want to hear what I missed."

The others launched into the story of what went down in PE class. It was weird to hear it from someone else's point of view, let alone a whole group. They all laughed and joked around. For a moment, I forgot these were witches. They seemed like regular teenagers to me. No one hesitated to welcome me into their group, and they didn't make it weird either. They acted like I'd always been here. It was nice.

"You okay over there, Franks?" Esther leaned forward to get my attention. "That face screams existential crisis."

I chuckled. "I'm just . . . adjusting still. Y'all seem so . . . human?"

Madge licked her lips. "We have to be. It's a survival thing."

" Lorsque nous sommes en public, nous devons cacher notre magie. "

" When we're in public, we have to hide our magic , that's what she said." Madge gestured to the school behind me. "There are a lot of us in this school so it's easy to forget and start using magic—so we kind of have a rule not to."

"And by we have a rule, she means Tennessee has a rule and no one wants to get caught breaking it." Tomás chuckled. "Though, that is still survival mode, isn't it?"

They all laughed.

I smiled. "I just . . . I wasn't sure what you'd all think after what happened in PE. But you just accepted me in like I'd always been here and that . . . that's really cool."

Esther smiled back. "Arcana stick together. Especially lately. Dangerous times. Also, humans are nice enough, but they tend to not understand us."

"So we've got to have each other's backs." Madge nodded as she pulled her lipstick out of her designer purse that I didn't know the name of but recognized the logo. "Because we've seen what a witch hunt looks like in history."

We all shuddered.

"And humans get uncomfortable around our magic." Seamus scooped Rootbeer into his lap to cradle her despite her being a full-grown golden retriever who probably weighed at least seventy-five pounds. Then again, Seamus's muscular arms were on full display in his muscle tank so I shouldn't have been surprised to find him strong. I'd been more distracted by the intricate tattoos because I couldn't quite tell from over here what they were of. "They feel very anxious around us."

Ava's bunny, Float, lunged for Rootbeer, leaping right out of Ava's arms and onto the pup's belly. "Traitor."

"You'll notice it soon enough, then you'll never be able to unsee it." Esther glanced over her shoulder. "It's nice to not have to mask ourselves all the time."

I gestured around the group. "Aside from my two biggest admirers, is this it for witches our age here?"

"No," they all said at once. Then laughed.

" Oh la la." Jo snapped her fingers excitedly. "We should have party tonight? For Frankie? à la plage? Avec un feu de joie ?"

"Plage! That means beach!" I high-fived myself when Jo nodded. "I'm in. I don't know what else she said, but she had me at beach. That's my happy place."

"She said with a bonfire," Madge added with a chuckle. "And hell yes, I'm in. I'll tell everyone?"

Everyone nodded.

Esther leaned forward again. "This is good. You'll get to meet the rest of the witch kids in town. It'll be fun."

"Awesome." I tapped on the wooden picnic table. "So . . . uh . . . why don't they eat out here with you guys?"

Archie smiled. "It is a great spot."

"Well, for starters, we didn't used to sit out here." Esther blushed. "This was The Coven's spot. We never ate out here with them. This was THEIRS."

"And you didn't just sit with The Coven," Ava said with a terrified kind of laugh.

I glanced around. "So why are we out here?"

Esther shrugged. "They don't live here anymore. We kept thinking they were coming back any day and didn't wanna get caught in their spot . . . but they're not. I mean, they left in October and haven't been back. So, we're gonna claim it. Babysit it for them."

Archie laughed. "Babysit it?"

"Well, yeah, I mean . . ." Esther looked around at the others. "If they come back and want it, then obviously we let them have it."

Birdie let out a deep breath. "I like to think they'd like that we sit here now."

Madge snorted. "We call that a coping mechanism."