Page 48 of Hex You

The head cheerleader’s blond hair cascaded perfectly around her shoulders to her mid back and as she turned it floated around her like a gorgeous veil. Her glacier-blue eyes were narrowed, but when she saw her keys she blinked quickly in surprise and looked from Mercy to Hunter.

Beside her, Heather stepped forward as she grinned. “OMG! That’s so awesome of you two to find them! We would’ve been screwed after school without them.” She took the keys and tossed them to Tiffany. “Thanks, you two!”

“Um. Yeah. That was really nice of you,” said Tiffany with a lot less enthusiasm. Then she focused her cerulean gaze on Hunter. “You haven’t talked to Kylie recently, have you?”

Hunter picked her thumbnail. “No. Not since yesterday.”

“Why?” Mercy asked.

Tiffany held up her phone like it was a talisman. “I’ve been texting her since last night about meeting Heather and me before school today to move some equipment because Coach Livingston was, like, super pissed yesterday when Kylie took off from practice.”

“Yeah,” Heather continued. “We thought it’d put Coach in a good mood if we had the JV field all set up for practice.”

“JV field?” Mercy asked. “Why are you practicing out there?”

Heather rolled her brown eyes. “Misogyny. Get this—the football team is in trouble because their coach told our coach his team has an attitude problem, sowehave to move to the crappy field as their punishment.”

“Typical that women are inconvenienced by the asinine actions of men,” Hunter grumbled.

“OMG!Exactly!” said Heather. “You and I speak the same language.” She lifted her fist in the air and pronounced, “SMASH THE PATRIARCHY!”

Hunter’s laugh was genuine as she nodded and repeated, “Smash the patriarchy!”

Mercy drew in a deep breath, like she was going to plunge into apool of cold water, and then said in a rush, “Hunter and I accidentally got to school early and since Kylie isn’t here yet we’ll help you move the equipment. Right, H?”

Hunter shrugged. “Sure.”

Heather exchanged a glance with Tiffany, who also shrugged before Heather grinned and said, “That would be awesome. You donoteven know how mean Coach L can be when she’s grumpy. She looks, like,supersweet, but she’s hiding an alter ego that’s more Ursula than Ariel.”

“We’d hate for a sea witch to zap you, so we’re happy to help,” said Mercy as the four of them headed to the equipment storage shed that sat outside the stadium just before the concession building.

“Wait, is that a thing?” Heather peered, big-eyed from Mercy to Hunter. “Are there really sea witches?”

Mercy laughed. “Probably, but I wouldn’t worry about them. Illinois is definitely not near a sea.”

“Yeah, and witches aren’t evil,” added Hunter. “The truth is any spellwork we do comes back on us times three—which is a definite incentive tonothex anyone.”

Tiffany put in a code to the push-button lock on the equipment storage shed, but turned to face Hunter and Mercy before she flipped on the light. “What’s a hex?”

“It’s like a curse,” said Mercy.

Tiffany and Heather exchanged another long look before she continued. “So, let’s saysomeonewas spreading rumors about you two cursing or, um, hexing the whole town. Would that mean the bad stuff would come back on both of you?”

“Yeah. A hex always comes back on the witch who casts it,” said Hunter.

“That’s why we almost never hex anyone, and if we do we have to be super careful about the wording of the hex,” said Mercy.

“What do you mean by ‘super careful’?” Heather air quoted.

“Well, let’s say I was pissed at you,” Mercy explained. “And decided to hex you to be too uncoordinated to make the varsity squad at tryouts this year.”

Heather gasped. “That would be super mean!”

“Yeah,” said Hunter. “It would also make Mercy three times as clumsy as it made you.”

“For real?” Tiffany asked.

“Totally,” Mercy said. “I’d barely be able to walk up a flight of stairs without tripping.”