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No pressure, she thought.
She picked up the vial they’d cooked up in the autoclave late last night. The deep purple liquid within was viscous—maybe more than was ideal—but at least it would be easier to pour. Cecily pulled out the stopper and refused to wrinkle her nose at the smell. She tipped the vial forward and deftly poured a thin stream into the shape of the rune, following her mother’s outline precisely. The grooves in the ash caught the fluid, and the rune of liquid began, ever so slightly, to glow.
“Very good,” her mother said. Cecily felt the tension in the room ease. Her mother took the candle—a part Cecily wasn’t very good at yet because she always lost her concentration when the heated wax singed her fingers. Mom didn’t flinch once as she dipped the flame toward the fluid—which caught fire.
For a moment the flames leaped high—still brilliant purple, still in the shape of the rune. Then the ash caught fire too, and a smoky cloud appeared above them. There, flickering in three dimensions, were the people they’d sought with the spyglass spell: all the fathers and brothers, out watching a baseball game at a nearby sports bar. Cecily caught a glimpse of Theo stealing an onion ring from Dad’s plate, and she nearly giggled.
The next thing she saw, however, wiped the smile from her face.
There was Scott—somehow even more insanely gorgeous than he’d been the day before. His arm rested around Kathleen’s shoulders, and he stared at her adoringly as she filed her fingernails. Neither of them was paying any attention to the game.
Scott doesn’t even like sports, Cecily thought. The guy she’d gone with briefly in the spring had wanted to spend most weekend afternoons watching televised golf, which was pretty much in a nutshell why she wasn’t going out with him anymore. Not liking sports was virtually the only way in which Scott could’ve become more perfect, so naturally he’d gone and done it.
Finding a boyfriend who was perfect to the point of not liking sports was virtually the only way that Kathleen Pruitt could’ve become even more unbearable. As much as Cecily had always loathed Kathleen, she’d never envied her before.
No doubt Kathleen knew that Cecily was jealous, and was enjoying every second of it.
Maybe she doesn’t even like Scott that much, Cecily thought hopefully. Maybe she’s only with him to spite me.
But there wasn’t much chance of that. Although probably Kathleen would do anything to spite Cecily, any girl would like Scott.
Just when the sight of them together seemed to sear Cecily’s eyes, the image flickered out. The flames smothered, and where the ashes had been were only a few sprinkles of dust on the basement floor. A clean working area was the sign of a spell well cast.
“Very nice,” said one of the mothers, and Cecily knew the praise was for her.
The coven meeting more or less broke up at that point. This was more of an instructional session than anything else; the spyglass spell had been for demonstration purposes only, since all the women knew about the sports-bar excursion. Some of the mothers went over the finer points of the spell with the daughters as everybody got up and gathered together the items they’d taken to focus their magic, to put the things back where they belonged.
“You did fine work today,” her mother said, pulling gently at Cecily’s ponytail.
“I try to pay attention.” Cecily attempted to look innocent. “Instead of skipping coven. Like some people.”
“Can it.” Mom glanced to make sure Mrs. Pruitt hadn’t heard; they were good friends, which was one reason Cecily wasn’t allowed to show openly how much she loathed Kathleen.
As Cecily tucked Theo’s Game Boy back into his luggage, she wondered, Would she skip coven if it meant she could spend time with Scott? Without Kathleen? Cecily decided she wouldn’t do it often—but she’d certainly do it once.
But no. Scott wasn’t perfect. Nobody was perfect. Sure he was gorgeous—and sweet and built—but he had chosen to date Kathleen. So there was one huge flaw right there. No doubt his other faults would make themselves known in time.
The guys, plus Kathleen, all returned about an hour later, after the baseball game had ended. If anything, it was raining even harder than before, which meant that Ocean’s Heaven once again seemed crowded and loud. Cecily sneaked up to her room to text her friends back home for a while, but Theo wouldn’t leave her alone.
“You said you would play foosball with me!”
“I did play foosball with you,” Cecily said, pressing the keypad with her thumb so her friends would read THEO BEING BRAT. “We played three games yesterday. Remember?”
“But I want to play today.”
“Theo—”
“You don’t like playing anymore because you can’t always win now that I’m bigger.” Theo folded his arms across his chest. Apparently this was her only reward for pretending to lose: an even sulkier baby brother.
“Okay, okay. Let’s play.” Cecily’s first thought, as they headed downstairs, was to show Theo that she could in fact still beat him at foosball, absolutely cream him, so he wouldn’t bug her about playing any longer. Then she reminded herself that being nice to Theo was just about the only vacation self-improvement goal she’d been able to keep.
In the game room a group of people were watching a DVD on the wide-screen TV, some action movie that seemed to be mostly about things blowing up. Her father sat in the center munching on pretzels. With a cheery smile Ms. Giordano called to them, “You kids having fun?”
“I can beat Cecily at foosball now!” Theo proclaimed. Cecily gritted her teeth.
Then she heard, “Well, then, maybe I should help Cecily out.” She turned to see Scott put his hands on the side of the foosball table. “What do you say, Theo? Can I play on Cecily’s side? Give her a chance?”
“Well—” Theo clearly didn’t like the idea of relinquishing the upper hand.
