Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

FRANKIE

I wasn't allowed to tell Elizabeth about the whole witch thing.

I told them that wasn't going to work for me.

They told me to be patient and they'd let me talk to The Coven about it.

I then informed them they had until Elizabeth returned to Florida and then I was telling her, permission from The Coven or not. Demons or no demons. My best friend and I had been through too much. If she had been across the street when I got home, I would've told her already but it wasn't exactly something to say over FaceTime with a person on the other side of the world.

My phone vibrated in my hand. When I looked down, I found text messages from Elizabeth.

‘ I can't believe one night changed so much.'

‘Let's just not think about it that way,' I sent back. ‘ We just have to find our new normal.'

‘Yeah, which means you have until June to find a house for us to move to within a mile from your new house.'

I grinned. ‘ A mile, eh? I'll see what I can do.'

She sent the fingers crossed emoji. ‘ FaceTime me once you get in your new room?'

‘Will do. Should be soon.'

I took a deep breath as I slid my iPhone back into my pocket. The GPS said ten minutes until arrival, which meant this was my new town, so I wanted to pay attention. My independence was important to me, now more than ever. I needed to start learning my way around, learning the street names and what stores were around. The Publix sign up ahead made me sigh with relief. There was no grocery store equivalent to Publix . But in all fairness, so far this part of Tampa didn't look much different than Tallahassee. More palm trees though. This definitely wasn't the Tampa Bay most people thought of when Tampa was mentioned. It had to be some small-town subset of it with a name I hadn't learned yet.

So far, it looked like a normal Florida suburban town with stoplights every other second and Corporate America in surround sound. We sat at a red light in the middle lane just watching a screaming match between the guy selling bouquets of roses and the homeless guy whose handwritten sign was being used to swat at the flower guy as if it were a bat. While the two were arguing, a woman wearing a trash bag as a hat scurried over, stole the bucket of cash, then fled faster than I would've thought those legs could move. The two guys had just noticed what happened when the light turned green and Uncle Kyle drove through the intersection. I cursed and spun in my seat to look out the back window as the homeless man took off in pursuit. The flower guy was still screaming at him.

I grinned and sat forward. Florida was so bat shit crazy. I loved it. Something told me this move a few hours south was going to be much more entertaining. I kept waiting for fear or sadness over this move to kick in, but it hadn't happened yet. Instead, I found myself growing more and more excited the closer we got. Something about what happened in the frat house made me want to move away and reinvent myself, to not be that girl everyone talked about. What happened to us was not our fault, but I knew lots of people who would claim otherwise. My aunt and uncle had made the right call in moving us. I couldn't even blame Elizabeth's parents.

We slowed at the next intersection and made a right turn. I glanced down at the GPS and butterflies danced in my stomach. We were less than a mile away now. I pressed pause on my Halestorm playlist and tossed my headphones back in my open bag. This was it: my new neighborhood. The anticipation was killing me. I slid to the middle seat to get a better view. The road we were now on was lined with huge oak trees that stretched over the two-lane road to make a sort of tunnel. The sunlight streaming in between the leaves made for a gorgeous sight. Between the two lanes was a grassy median that looked perfect for walking the dogs along. I glanced over the backseat to check on the boys, but they were all cuddled up in a pile, sound asleep.

When I turned back around, I caught a quick glimpse at a short brick wall with the words ‘ GULF SHORES' written on it. The O had a five-pointed star inside of it. I frowned and tried to get a better look, but we went by it too fast. The lane into the neighborhood ended at a stop sign, leaving us only the option to go left or right. A car to our right was crawling through the stop sign in a pathetic attempt to turn left, but it was okay, it gave me a chance to look around.

"So, to the left is the human side of the neighborhood," Uncle Kyle said as he pointed to the left. "To the right is our zone."

I frowned. "How do you know the difference?"

"If you're human, you don't. But our magic subconsciously keeps them away." Then he pointed to the right. "However, those guys are usually a good indication."

Aunt Kimmy laughed.

I slid back over to the window on the right side to see what they saw—and my jaw dropped. In the grass, on both sides of the road, had to be three dozen iguanas. Huge, massive, mini-dinosaur looking iguanas with big spikes running down their backs and tails as long as their bodies. At least a dozen of them were in various shades of neon-orange and had to be about six feet long. They were basically alligators at that point.

"What in the Jumanji kind of shit is this?"

They both laughed as we turned onto the road, letting the jungle beasts surround us.

"Animals know they're safe with us, so they hang around where we can protect them." Aunt Kimmy pointed behind us. "The humans kill them if they go over there . . . so they don't."

"Why would they kill them?"

"Technically, they're an invasive species." Uncle Kyle looked up at me through the rear-view mirror. "But so are humans."

Humans. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I wasn't quite ready to accept this whole witch notion, but I hadn't woken up yet, so it had to be true. Also, I'd stubbed my toe really bad at one of the gas stations and saw stars for a few seconds . . . so I was definitely awake, as the theory went. But the idea that I wasn't a human was a hard pill to swallow.

The neighborhood looked totally and entirely human as we drove through it. Just a bunch of ranch-style one-story homes in various colors with bright-green grass and lots of colorful flowers. I saw palm trees, oak trees, and a bunch of other trees I didn't know the name of. The neighborhood was cute. I liked how each house had its own individual flair. This was no cookie-cutter development. I'd never seen a home with a black front door, and yet I'd seen at least two dozen. If that wasn't interesting on its own, the rest of the doors we'd passed were the exact same shade of green—a hue somewhere between emerald and hunter. It was pretty but . . . that many houses?

I frowned and paid closer attention to the next few houses. The entire street of houses had either black or green front doors, except every single one of them had that same five-pointed star on them or in the windows.

"I see a lot of . . . are those pentagrams?"

"Those are pentacles," Aunt Kimmy said from the front seat while texting someone. "The five-pointed star by itself is a pentagram, but with the circle around it, it's called a pentacle."

I nodded. Seemed like good information to know. "It represents the five elements, right?"

"Yes, it does." Aunt Kimmy smiled at me, which I only saw in the side-view mirror. "Also, protection and balance. It's the chosen symbol for arcana. We invented it long ago, but societies throughout history have adopted it and used it for their own meanings."

I frowned. "And the witches aren't mad about that?"

"Absolutely not. They are protecting themselves more than they realize, and that's what we want. It's our job to protect the humans."

I was about to ask about the black and green doors when we passed a pale-green house with a purple door. A vibrant plum purple. The pentacle hanging on it had little pink flowers on it. The next house on the corner also had a plum purple door with a pentacle made of sunflowers. We stopped at the stop sign, and while we waited for the three other cars to make their move, I glanced around at the houses. More specifically, their front doors. Across the street to the left, the three houses closest to me were that same purple. Up ahead, the two corner houses had purple doors as well. We made a right turn, then drove three streets down and made a left. All the doors lining the street had been purple, but in the distance to the right on the streets we'd passed, the doors had been black or green.

The first house on the left after our turn had an aquamarine-colored door and its pentacle was made of seashells. There were a handful more purple doors before I saw three aquamarine doors in a row.

"Okay . . . what's up with the doors?" I pointed as we drove by yet another purple door with a giant pentacle made of twigs hanging like a wreath. "There's a pattern. This means something."

Uncle Kyle grinned. "They indicate the type of witch that lives in the house. Purple is for Wands?—"

"Wands? Like in Harry Potter?"

"Yes . . . and no." Aunt Kimmy grimaced and half-turned in the passenger seat. "While in a more literal sense, the wands used are very much the same as in Harry Potter, their function is slightly different."

"That did not clarify things as you might think."

She chuckled. "Let's back up. So, there are four types of witches—or as we call them, Suits. Each and every witch, including the members of The Coven, belong to one of these four Suits. Those four types are Wands, Cups, Pentacles, and Swords."

"Like in a tarot deck?" I wasn't an experienced tarot card reader, but I'd seen them before, not that that helped me understand the meaning any better.

"Exactly. The Suit you are indicates the type of magic you are strongest in. Not saying that a Cup can't use a wand, but it wouldn't be their best fit." She pursed her lips. "Kind of like you could play catcher or first base, but your best fit on the field is the pitcher's mound."

" Oh. " I nodded as I glanced out the window at the four moms pushing strollers down the middle of the street with little umbrellas floating above the strollers—entirely untethered to anything. I shook my head. "Okay, that helps. Continue?"

"Swords are the warriors, the soldiers. They go on to become Knights. You can think of them as witch military. They get stationed around the world to fight demons for a living. The Cups are healers. They're potion masters. Their magic is calm and grounding, meant to support the others. They go on to work in infirmaries around the world."

"And you're both Wands," I said as pieces started to click in my mind. "I saw your wands."

"You did. We are. Wands are spellcasters. We're the most like Harry Potter witches. We use wands to do all kinds of things. Some of us go on to be Pages who work with the Knights to protect people."

"The Pentacles are the hardest to explain," Uncle Kyle said as he stopped the car to let a kid and his dog cross. "They're like the ambassadors to the human world. They tend to be in leadership roles, the responsible ones who rein the rest of us in. Their circus, their monkeys kind of thing."

"Right, right, right. So then I'm assuming the four Suits have one specific color assigned to each?"

"Yup. Can you guess which is which?" Uncle Kyle wagged his eyebrows at me through the rearview mirror.

I pursed my lips. "Black is for the Swords. Has to be. And the green gives responsible vibes so I'm guessing Pentacles?"

"Two for two." He laughed and slowed the car in front of a pale, sand-colored one-story house. "Can you get all four?"

"Well, potions are liquid and aquamarine is the color of the ocean so . . . that must be Cups?" When they nodded, I continued, "Which means purple is for Wands."

"Four for four. Good job, Franks." He cheered and pulled into a red-brick driveway. He put the car in park, then looked over his shoulder at me. "We're here."

My breath caught in my throat. All of a sudden, nerves crashed down around me.

Aunt Kimmy smiled. "You ready?"

"Sure. In theory."

"Fake it ‘til you make it?"

I grinned. "You know how I roll."

"Come on, kiddo. Let's get inside and get settled, then we'll order some delivery and relax."

"Right. On the count of three, we get out." I took a deep breath. "Three . . . two?—"

"ONE!" Uncle Kyle threw his door open and jumped out.

Aunt Kimmy chuckled and slowly pushed her door open. "Come on, you know he can only contain himself for so long."

You got this, Frankie. No big deal. I leaned over the backseat to my dogs. "Boys! Ready to get out?"

All three of their little heads popped up. Uncle Kyle yelled hello to somebody, probably a stranger walking by, and it made all three dogs jump to their feet. I smiled, got out of the car, and turned to shut the door—and froze. My jaw dropped. The sunset painted in the sky was more vibrant than I'd ever seen. And I was born in Florida. I assumed I'd seen the extent of the colors of the sunset, but evidently I was wrong. "Whoa."

"Frankie?"

I pointed to the sky. "Where was this back home?"

Uncle Kyle chuckled from the other side of the car in my peripheral vision. "It's the magic in the air, the presence of arcana, that makes those colors that much more vibrant."

I took a deep breath, then sniffed a few times. "Do I smell the beach? The air is salty?—"

"The beach is five minutes away. Just follow the sunset."

I gasped. "Y'all should've led with that this morning. It's like you don't know me at all."

"Dammit. She's right, love."

"Can we go there now? First?"

Aunt Kimmy's face fell. "Sorry, not right now. Vanessa wasn't expecting us until lunch tomorrow, so she scrambled to clear up her schedule to meet us tonight. She's inside waiting for us."

"Can we go after?"

She arched one eyebrow at me and pursed her lips. "You start school tomorrow morning, and we have to unpack everything?—"

"Using your magic wand?—"

"So, let's see how quickly we can get all settled in and then we'll see about going to the beach. Deal?"

"I see what you're doing. It's working." I sighed and turned back to the sunset. "Fine, deal. Wait, who is Vanessa?"

Aunt Kimmy walked by me to the back of the SUV, then opened the trunk, so I followed her. "Vanessa is an old friend of mine who is renting this house to us."

"She just has spare houses?" I asked with a frown as I hooked the boys' leashes into place. "Why does that feel weird to me?"

She just chuckled. "The Coven lived here for a while. This town became a miniature homeland for our kind. People wanted to live near them?—"

Houdini licked the side of my face. "Why? That sounds dangerous."

"Well, we're drawn to them. To their power. It's a subconscious thing. If they were still in town you'd feel it—Bubba, don't jump! You're gonna hurt yourself." She scooped him up and gently sat him on the ground. "We have a hotel in town for visiting witches, but whenever someone moves out of town, their house is bought up by other witches to prevent humans from accidentally buying in, then they either sell to known witches or rent out to witches who want to live here temporarily."

Bo barked impatiently so I helped him down and then lowered Houdini down after him. Once all three dogs were out, I took Bubba's leash from Aunt Kimmy and led them into the front yard.

"Are you okay, Frankie?" Aunt Kimmy asked softly, following me into the grass. "You seem to be handling this in stride but . . . it's a lot, I know."

"I think I'm okay? Honestly, after what happened, I think anything would've been a lot, so might as well go with the new."

Uncle Kyle tugged my hair playfully. "She's a trooper."

I smiled and watched my boys sniff every piece of grass near us. This was our new home, and while I had no idea how long we'd be living here, I knew it was going to be a little bit. Especially if I had to learn how to control my magic and then learn to use it. Part of me still struggled with the whole concept, especially as I glanced left and right at this residential street and found nothing spectacular. Not that it wasn't a cute neighborhood. It just looked so human. I was waiting for the reality of the magic to become overwhelmingly obvious, but perhaps that would happen once I went to school.

My stomach turned. School. I hadn't started a new school in forever, and I'd never done it without Elizabeth. Not that I was shy, but my whole life had been flipped upside down and now I wasn't sure what was what. I needed to unpack and at least make my new room feel comfortable.

I cleared my throat. "So when will our stuff arrive?"

"Oh, it's already here." Aunt Kimmy grinned and headed toward the house, waving us along with her.

"What? How? C'mon, boys." I tugged on the leashes so I could keep up.

Aunt Kimmy marched for the front door of the yellow house with a cute porch out front. "We shipped it?—"

"But how? That was just hours ago?—"

"Magic, Franks." Uncle Kyle held his wand out.

I frowned. "The moving company guys weren't human?"

He grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "Nope."

I blinked and stopped beside him on the sidewalk just before the porch. "Explain?"

"Remember we explained about the different Suits? And how the Pentacles help arcana assimilate with human culture?" When I nodded, he shrugged. "Well, many centuries ago, one of the Pentacles families realized The Coven needed easier ways to communicate with the civilians, but also the humans kept going into war with each other and we needed ways to hide magical belongings quickly . . . so they basically started a magical shipping service. They designed the whole premise, then hired some Wands to do the magic part."

My eyebrows rose. "One family did this?"

"The English family, yes."

"Bo, leave it," I snapped to stop him from chasing a large curly-tailed lizard, then turned my attention back to my uncle. "As in, they're from England?"

"What?" He frowned down at me, then he smiled. " Ohh, no. Their surname is English."

"They're one of the founding twenty families." Aunt Kimmy was typing on her cellphone. Then she looked up and made a funny face. "Actually, their name was really Heinglitz, but as with many names and words throughout history, over time it was changed to English. It's been English for a few centuries now, and since they have quite a legacy by it, they don't care to change it."

I blinked and shook my head. "I love how you drop the words twenty founding families and then just roll on like it's no big deal. Later I'm gonna need more info on this but for now . . . this English family must be wealthy?"

Uncle Kyle wagged his eyebrows and grinned as he pointed his wand at the lock on the front door, even though we were like ten feet away still. "No one richer."

Light sparkled within the gold lock and then the purple door popped open an inch.

"Hey, our door is purple."

"Franks, I just used a wand to open it. We talked about it in the car."

"Right. Duh. I knew that. I'm fine." I rolled my eyes but then a thought occurred to me, something I hadn't yet paused to consider. "What were my parents?"

"Wands," they both answered softly.

I nodded. "So I'm probably a Wand?"

"Probably." Uncle Kyle cleared his throat and fidgeted with his wand. "Shall we go in? It's hot as hell out here."

The front door swung wide open and a woman with black hair stepped out. Well, more like she slid into the open doorway with her arms wide and a huge grin plastered on her face. It was like that GIF Elizabeth and I used a lot. "Kimmy! Kyle!"

Aunt Kimmy let out a soft sigh, like the sight of her was a relief. "Vanessa."

I watched with my dogs sitting at my feet as Vanessa hugged both my aunt and uncle like their lives depended on it. I'd never heard this woman's name before, and yet they seemed super close. The plot thickens.

Then her bright-green eyes focused on me and they seemed to twinkle a little. " Francelina. "

"Frankie, please." I smiled and nodded but didn't wave as I was holding Bubba and Bo on a tight leash since they sometimes were unpredictable with new people. "Nice to meet you?—"

She tackled me. This Vanessa woman tackled me in a hug and actually lifted me off my feet a few Inches. All three boys were now barking and jumping up on me. "Um, Vanessa, the boys don't like strangers?—"

"OH!" Vanessa sat me back on my feet, then leapt back. She pulled three dog cookies in the shape of a bone from her pocket and knelt down in front of them despite them still barking at her. "May I? They're the same kind you give them—Kimmy gave me the list."

"Oh. Yeah, thanks for asking. Go ahead."

"Sorry, puppos, I'm friend." She held those treats up and smiled. "Now, who wants to sit down and be a good boy for his cookie?"

All at once they sat. I blinked and shook my head. "Wow."

Vanessa handed the cookies out one at a time, then smiled up at me as she stood. "I'm a dog person, they know it. I just got them a little excited. Sorry. I just haven't seen you in so long."

My eyes widened. "I, um—Sorry, we've met?"

"You were practically a baby the last I saw you. I knew your parents." I must've made a face because she winked and waved her hand through the air. "But let me stop being weird. Come inside. It's too hot out here. I just got here a few moments before you all did, so I still have a few things to do, but your stuff was already inside."

"From the English family's magic moving company," I grumbled but none of them heard me.

"Okay, three keys are on the hook here right inside the door. They work all the locks." Vanessa pointed to her left as she entered the foyer. "The clicker for the garage is on the kitchen counter, in case I forget."

The moment the boys and I were inside, the front door closed softly behind us. Golden sparks flickered from the lock. The ice-cold air-conditioning slammed into me, and I sighed. It was glorious. I wondered if a witch invented air conditioners because they were definitely magic in this Florida heat. Once my eyes adjusted to the dim indoor lighting, I realized we stood in a small foyer with key hooks on the left wall and a little section on the right with raincoats and rain boots lined up ready for us. Three pairs. I'd never seen them before, and they were definitely too small to fit anyone in this family.

"Frankie?"

I jumped at my aunt's voice but pointed to the rain gear. "Whose stuff is that?"

"Oh." She giggled and pointed her wand at the items. Light sparkled like pixie dust, then the raincoats and boots changed to be our sizes—or at least they looked right. "There."

"What just happened here?"

She just laughed and then pointed her wand at the wall beside the raincoats. Three big, golden hooks appeared out of nowhere. I opened my mouth to ask what they were for when suddenly my dogs' harnesses and leashes flew between us and landed on the hooks. I looked down to my dogs and my jaw dropped.

"They're naked."

"Well, yeah, we're home now." She winked and waved for me to follow her around the corner. "The boys won't really need those much now that we're here."

"Why?" I frowned as we rounded the corner and came out into the open floor plan living space. The all-white kitchen was nestled into the corner on my right with a huge eat-at island that bridged the space between the living room. The back wall of the house was made of glass and showed off a gorgeous patio out back with bright-green grass beyond it. The brand-new black sectional sofa my aunt and uncle had purchased during my coma sat perfectly in the middle of the living room with our television on the opposite wall. It looked like we'd already moved in.

"Because every house in the neighborhood has spells to keep dogs within the yard unless they're hooked on a leash that a person is holding. We don't like lost dogs, or dogs getting hit by cars. That way if a dog somehow does get out but wanders into another yard, they'll be trapped there until someone comes to get them." Vanessa smiled at me as she flicked her wand and the sliding glass doors opened, letting fresh air in. "Go ahead, puppos, go play."

They took off running for the backyard, already barking and playfully biting each other on the way out. My stomach tightened into knots. I wanted to trust her, but I couldn't, so I chased after them, except when I got to the open door I watched as Bo slid to a stop about a foot from the wooden fence. He cocked his head to the side for a moment, then threw his snout in the air and howled. Houdini and Bubba copied without hesitation.

I grimaced. "I probably should warn our neighbors about the howl fests."

Vanessa chuckled. "No worries. The houses here have spells to keep noise contained. You'll only ever hear noise from your neighbors if there's danger. Those are the only sounds permitted through."

"No way."

Vanessa arched her eyebrow, then pointed her wand out the open door toward the house to our right. The blue sky sparkled and then Silver Springs by Stevie Nicks blared over the six-foot-tall wooden fence as if I was playing it from a speaker right in front of me. My eyes widened. Vanessa chuckled and flicked her wand again and the yard went silent.

"Holy fuck."

She threw her head back and cackled. "Trust the magic, Frankie. Your boys are safe in the yard. Let them play while you get settled."

I spun around and froze. It was like that scene in Beauty and the Beast when all the pieces of houseware were singing Be our Guest and everything was flying around. My aunt and uncle were hard at work with their wands, sorting through the boxes of our stuff that had beat us here.

"Vanessa, where should we get takeout from?"

" Kyle. No, " Aunt Kimmy hissed and tossed hand towels right at his face. "We've been eating take out at the hospital for months. This is our first night here. Let's have something home-cooked."

He threw his hands up. "Fine. Cook. Knock your socks off."

"Why do I have to cook? I'm putting everything away?—"

"What's it look like I'm doing, love?"

"You're the better cook?—"

"And you're the better driver, and yet you made me drive here." Uncle Kyle wagged his eyebrows. "That means it's your turn to do the heavy lifting."

Aunt Kimmy narrowed her eyes at him. "Really? You're going to organize every single room and put everything away in its new designated spot that we haven't even established yet? I mean, we haven't even looked at the drawer situation in our bathroom. How big is our closet? Which side is mine? Where do we want the cups in the kitchen?"

He opened his mouth and pointed at her, then said in a loud voice, "Pasta or potatoes?"

Aunt Kimmy gave him a little smile and kissed his cheek. "Love you, hun. Whichever meal you'd like to make we'll be happy with."

He pursed his lips and nodded. His eyes locked on our new kitchen. "How about baked ziti? Yeah, that'll be good. A nice heavy meal before Frank's first day."

Three boxes labeled ‘ KITCHEN' floated over and landed on the island. "I put your speaker in the big one."

"All right." He cracked his knuckles, then dug into the boxes with his bare hands. "I'm thinking our neighbor had it right, a little Stevie Nicks to welcome us home."

Aunt Kimmy walked over to me and Vanessa and rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. She leaned forward and whispered, "He's going to avoid using magic just so he won't have to try and help me put stuff away. And then I won't have to be nice and let him help when I really just wanna do it myself."

I snorted. "I'm not entirely sure if that's healthy or not."

"Tough to tell, kiddo." She winked, then pointed over her left shoulder. "Sweetie, why don't you go set up your room? I put all your boxes in there already. Take your time. Relax. Settle in. We'll call you when dinner is ready?"

I took a deep breath, then sighed. "Right. And the boys?"

"Door will stay open so they can come and go." She used her wand to send about a dozen boxes flying through a doorway on our left. "I'll be in and out. The boys will find you. Go ahead."

"Come on. I'll show you." Vanessa took my hand and dragged me to the right into a small hallway with three closed doors. "Right, so this first one is the laundry room. The one in the middle is the bathroom, and the door on the left is your new room."

"Cool." I opened the door to my room and peeked inside. The room was nothing special. White walls with the same light hardwood floors as in the rest of the house. The window on the far wall overlooked the front yard, which I did like. It would allow me to spy on the neighborhood discreetly. The entire left wall was a closet with those accordion doors. The wall to my right had my bookshelves. They were empty, but that was okay. I loved setting up my library. My bed was nestled in the far corner, which I also liked. My boxes of all my stuff were sitting in the middle of the room.

"You okay?"

I turned back to Vanessa and found her green eyes watching me. With a smile, I nodded. "Yeah, just . . . adjusting. Thank you for hooking us up here."

"You're welcome." She squeezed my shoulder. "You've got this, Frankie. Just breathe in that salty ocean air and everything will be fine."

And then she was gone.

I turned to face my new room, and for the first time felt a little bit empty. But it was weird. I didn't wish I was back home. Sure, I loved my softball team and I had other friends, but none of them were like Elizabeth. Honestly, my best friend being on the other side of the world was the main reason I didn't want to stay. I didn't want to face my school and be treated like a freak. Or a victim. This move was going to be easier. And if I was being honest with myself, the whole being a witch thing was kind of epic. It was getting harder to deny its realness, and that wasn't a bad thing. If this was somehow a dream, then I figured I ought to enjoy it while I could.

The boxes were going to wait though. I walked around them toward my bed and discovered the window on the right wall was a bay window. With a grin, I climbed up and settled in. All I wanted was to talk to Elizabeth, so I pulled my phone out and FaceTimed her, but after a few rings I gave up. I sat my phone down and looked out the window—and frowned. I could see clear through to our neighbor's yard to where a boy with dark-red hair sat on the step of their wooden deck. He looked young, or at least small, like perhaps he wasn't more than my height.

Purple light flashed in front of him, and we both jumped.

He leapt off the deck, but his foot caught on something and he stumbled forward, crashing down to his knees before his momentum sent him face-first into the gravel walkway. I cursed and opened the window to call out and see if he was okay, then froze with my face sticking out the window. The poor guy was already flipping onto his back. There was no blood or anything, so he was most likely fine. And then he started to laugh. Like full belly, body-shaking laugh.

I leaned back but I left the window open. I was captivated by this new neighbor of mine for some reason. He rolled onto his stomach, then staggered onto all fours. I was an athlete, always had been, which meant I was usually surrounded by other athletes . . . and this guy . . . was not one. His arms and legs shook a little as he climbed back to his feet. He even stumbled on his way back to sit on the steps. I suspected this dude was gifted in clumsiness.

He was also older than I originally assumed. His face definitely belonged to a teenager. He was just short. With a dimpled smirk, he brushed his hands off on his jeans, then picked up a stick off the ground— no, wait. That's a wand. Excitement rushed through me. He was about to use magic. I'd seen my aunt and uncle use their wands, and now their friend Vanessa, but somehow witnessing a perfect stranger perform magic was different. Maybe because he didn't know I was watching. Maybe that made it more real. I leaned forward to try and listen.

His voice wasn't carrying, probably because of that spell Vanessa talked about, but by the way his mouth moved, almost like he was singing, I imagined he was saying a spell. Granted, I was working only with my minimal knowledge of Harry Potter. Actually, he reminded me of Ron Weasley in class waving his wand like it was a saltshaker. In my head I heard Hermione's voice warning him he was going to poke someone's eye out before correcting his enunciation.

I had no idea what he was trying to do, but magic kept sparkling and flashing from the end of his wand. He kept dropping it and cursing. His left sneaker changed to a ski boot, then a bright-red rain boot, and then a black boot before returning to the white sneaker. His blue jeans suddenly had pink spots all over them. He ran his hands through his dark-red hair and stomped his foot. I tried not to laugh, but when he held the wand up and seemed to threaten it, I lost my composure.

Just as I was closing my window so he wouldn't hear me laughing, a woman with the same dark-red hair color stepped out onto the deck. She was even smaller than the kid. She waved her hand and shouted in a beautiful British accent, "Time for dinner, love."

"Coming, Ma," he shouted back in the same accent.

The plot thickens a little more.

My phone vibrated against the glass. I cursed and dove for it, finding Elizabeth calling me back on FaceTime. I hit the button and held my phone up and smiled. "Hi."

"Oh no, what's wrong?"

I frowned. "Nothing?—"

"That's your fake smile." She held the phone closer to her face. "Don't bullshit me. Talk to me."

"I'm just doing my best right now, trying to adapt." I sighed and leaned back. "Distract me. Show me China."