Enchantment (7 page)

She was disappointed but not surprised when her peanut butter and jelly sandwich was missing the jelly. Abby had already eaten all the pickled okra and bottled peaches they’d brought from home. If Channie had been smart she would have hidden at least one jelly-jar of Momma’s blackberry jam in her closet.

An obnoxious clanging sound interrupted Channie’s sandwich inspection. She jerked her head around towards the source of the commotion and groaned as she watched Eric charge up the bleachers.
 

He flopped down next to her and leaned back against the rails. “Hey Chastity Belt, what’re you doing out here all by yourself? Pretending to watch an invisible baseball game?”

Channie wanted to zap him. “It’s Belks, you moron. B-E-L-K-S.” She jammed her sandwich back in the bag and stood up to leave. Eric jumped to his feet and stepped in front of her, blocking her path.
 

The brown paper sack rustled in her fisted hands. “Stay away from me.”

Eric frowned and made a huffing sound in the back of his throat. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Sorry. I can’t make the same promise. Now get out of my way.”
 

Channie was debating the pros and cons of cursing Eric when Joshua Abrim came out of nowhere and ran up the steps, taking them three at a time. “Leave her alone, jackass.”
 

Channie pulled her bristling magic in tight and held on. Josh was too close.
 

Eric said, “Get lost, beanpole.”

“I don't think Kassie would like it very much if she found out you were hitting on Channie.”

Eric’s girlfriend, Kassie, was the same girl that had called Channie an inbred hillbilly in the bathroom on the first day of school. In addition to being a shameless gossip, Kassie was insanely jealous. Channie was pretty sure Kassie wouldn’t mind one bit if Eric hit her.

Eric was definitely a jackass and he annoyed the hell out of Channie, but he wasn’t the type of guy that beat up on women.

She said, “Eric wasn’t hitting me.”

Eric’s jaw dropped. He said, “You gotta be kidding me,” then laughed out loud. Channie wanted to shove him off the bleachers.

Josh had a puzzled expression on his face, but at least he wasn’t laughing at her.
 

Eric said, “Come on, Chastity. No one is that dumb.”

Josh narrowed his eyes at Eric. “Don’t call her that.”

“Why not? It’s her name. Even Old Lady Windsor calls her Chastity. Isn’t that right, Chastity Belt?”
 

Josh fisted his hands. The air crackled with anger. “Cut it out, Eric.”

“Well, if she doesn’t want to be called Chastity — I could give her a nickname.”

“She already has one.”

“Oh, I know, but I think we can come up with something much better than ‘Channie.’ Don’t you?”

Channie could tell from Eric’s tone of voice that she wasn’t going to like it.
 

“Let’s see. We could call her ‘Chaz’ but that’s too masculine.”

Josh leaned toward Eric. “I’m warning you …”

“I’ve got it!” Eric snapped his fingers and pointed at Channie. “We can use the second half of her name. Drop the Chass and that leaves you with—”

Josh launched himself at Eric, knocking him over backwards, but in less time than a single heartbeat, Eric reversed positions, straddled Josh’s hips and punched him in the nose. He cocked his arm back but before he could land another punch, an involuntary bolt of energy shot out of Channie and blasted Eric.
 

He flew backwards and tumbled down the bleachers as if he’d been hit by an invisible train.
 

Josh jumped to his feet, ignoring the blood gushing out of his nose and ran down the steps towards Eric. Josh had every right to retaliate for the cheap shot, but Channie didn’t want to witness it. She was drained from the expenditure of so much power. All magic had its costs, even Enchantment’s, but the way Chastity consumed energy, all at once and without reservation, left her reeling. She couldn’t even stand, much less protect Eric with magic.

“Josh, please don’t—”

Instead of attacking Eric, Josh knelt beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Eric, are you okay?” Josh was radiating pure compassion. Channie was immediately drawn to it.

It was wrong to take someone’s energy without their permission, but Josh was magically disabled and even if he knew he was generating positive energy, he wouldn’t know what to do with it. And Channie desperately needed it. So — she took it.
 

The energy unexpectedly bypassed her power-well and flowed straight into her heart-of-hearts. Channie wanted to shout with joy when she felt Enchantment stir. It was weak and inaccessible, but Enchantment’s magic was still a part of her, still able to attract and use positive energy. Maybe someday she could recover it and restore it to its proper place — if she still wanted to.
 

There was no doubt that Chastity’s magic was far superior to Enchantment’s when it came to raw power. But Channie missed the positive energy of everyone’s adoration — whether she deserved it or not. You didn’t make many friends by cursing them.

A quiet groan interrupted Channie’s brooding. She used a little of the energy she’d taken from Josh and scanned both boys for injuries. Eric was still in quite a bit of pain from Chastity’s curse, but pain-away spells didn’t work against magic. His discomfort would fade in a few minutes. What wouldn’t fade anytime soon, was his fury towards Channie. Even if he weren’t radiating negative energy, the confused and angry expression on his face proved that he knew Channie had zapped him — he just didn’t know how. Whether or not he hated her was irrelevant. She would have helped him if she could, but there was nothing she could do for him.
 
Eric had a mild concussion, but Channie knew better than to mess with a person’s brain. Without the proper training, she’d likely do more harm than good.

She returned her attention to Josh. His nose was obviously broken and gushing blood like a faucet, but she was pretty sure she could fix it. After all, she’d healed a robin’s wing just last summer, and a nose wasn’t nearly as complicated or fragile as a broken wing. Even if she messed up, it’s not like it was gonna kill him.

Channie pressed her fingers against her own nose, focusing on the form and function of bone and cartilage then scanned Josh’s nose, comparing the differences. She focused her mind and cast the healing spell.
 

There was a loud “pop,” followed by an even louder yelp of pain and mild swearing.

“Damn it!”

Eric sat up and said, “What’s wrong?”
 

“You broke my effing nose.”

“Yeah, but that was five minutes ago. What just happened? I heard something crack.”

“I don’t know, but it hurts worse now than it did when you hit me.”
 

Channie cringed. She should have cast a pain-away spell first. Or no spell at all. She needed more practice before she used Chastity’s power to fuel spells — especially since it was a lot harder to create healing spells with negative energy.

Josh sneezed twice, swearing and spraying blood clots everywhere. But at least his nose quit bleeding. Unfortunately, it was still swelling and the skin under both eyes was turning purple. He helped Eric to his feet, then looked at Channie and said, “If anyone asks, tell them we were tossing a football around. I missed and got smacked in the face. Okay?”

Channie nodded her head. She read Josh’s energy field, expecting to find anger and fear since he was focused on her, but all she found was curiosity, a desire to protect her … and lust.

Eric was a different story. He radiated nothing but fear and anger. “If you ever come near me again—”

Josh cut him off. “Dude, you started it.”

“But she hit me with some kind of power beam.“

“Power beam? Seriously?” Josh glanced at Channie with a questioning look then turned back to Eric. “How hard did you hit your head?”

“I don’t know how she did it, but I’m telling you — that girl’s dangerous.”

~***~

Channie decided she’d caused enough trouble for one day and skipped the rest of her classes. She rode her bicycle to Heritage Park and sat in the shade of the pavilion until school was over. She would have enjoyed soaking up some sunshine, but hid in the shadows. She didn’t want Momma to see her if she happened to look out one of the east windows.
 

Three hours later, Channie still had the burnt onion stench of a curse clinging to her, but unless she wanted to answer questions about why she was late coming home from school, she had to go. She got up and rubbed against a pine bough to see if that would hide the smell. It didn’t. All it did was gum up her hands and clothes with sticky, yellow sap.
 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
 

Momma wrinkled her nose when Channie walked in, but she didn’t scold her. Daddy actually smiled. And why shouldn’t he? The smell of Chastity’s curse was proof their little plot to ruin her life was working.

Channie went to bed right after supper and slept until noon the next day. Too many sleepless nights and the expenditure of so much magic had finally taken its toll. But she didn’t want to miss her afternoon classes two days in a row, so she persuaded Momma to write her an excuse and rode her bike to school.
 

Josh’s fight with Eric must have boosted his confidence. Instead of sitting on his bike and watching Channie ride away after school — he followed her.
 

She’d fantasized about talking to Josh for days, but maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Even though he’d defended her at the time, he knew she’d zapped Eric. He was bound to ask questions she wasn’t supposed to answer. If he lasered her with those deep blue eyes of his, she was afraid she’d tell him the truth.

Channie pedaled as fast as she could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Her legs were on fire and she had a stitch in her side when Josh caught up with her on his child-sized-junk-yard bicycle. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“Hey, Channie. Did you read my note?”

She stopped pedaling and let the bicycle coast. There was no point killing herself trying to outrun him since it was obviously impossible. Still gasping for breath, she nodded her head.

Josh pressed his mouth into a thin, hard line and said, “Oh. Okay, then.” He nodded his head once and took off, jumping ahead of her as if she’d been standing still.

Channie knew she should just let him go, but the way his body slumped with disappointment tugged at her heart. “Josh, wait a minute. I want to talk to you.”

He veered off the path and wheeled his bike around. Channie thought he was going to shoot right past her. But at the last minute, he hit the front brake. Hard. Gravel scattered across the path as the back end of his bike popped up off the ground.
 

Channie gasped, but instead of tumbling over the handlebars, Josh caught the front tire with one foot and kicked the back end of his bicycle around with the other. He bounced his way back onto the concrete path without touching his feet to the ground.

Channie sniffed the air but didn’t detect even a trace of magic. Josh did all that trickery without a balance spell. “How’d you do that?”

Josh grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “I just like goofing off.” He bit his lower lip then pulled it through his teeth again. It was obviously a nervous habit, but it brought back the memory of kissing him. Channie’s cheeks flushed hot when she realized she was licking her lips as she stared at his.
 

He bounced in place on his bike as if it were a pogo stick. “So … Why didn’t you call me?” He stopped bouncing, but kept his feet on the pedals, perfectly balanced.

“We don’t have a phone.”

His eyebrows shot up and disappeared under the curls that fringed the edges of his bike helmet. “You don’t have a phone?”

“Didn’t I just say that?” Channie didn’t mean to be so snippy, but this high-altitude was killing her. She pushed her hand against the stitch in her side and took a deep breath. “Momma and Daddy are still fighting over whether or not to spend money on a telephone. So no, we don't have one. But even if we did. I couldn’t call you.”

Josh’s Adam’s apple bobbed twice before he spoke. “Couldn’t or wouldn’t?”

“Huh?”

“Is there some reason you can’t call me? Even if you had a phone?”

“Yeah. My daddy would kill you.”

He blinked and jerked his head back, ducking his chin. “Why?”

“He doesn’t want me to have a boyfriend.”

“I don’t want to be your boyfriend! Unless you want me … I mean … I just want to be your friend.”
 

“I’d love to be your friend, but Daddy doesn’t know the difference between a boy that’s a friend and a boyfriend.”

“I’d be happy to explain it to him.”

“Look, Josh, it was nice talking to you, but I gotta go. If I’m late getting home, Momma and Daddy will lay into me.”

“You live close to Heritage Park, right?”

“Yeah.”
 

“I’ll ride with you to the park and we can talk on the way.”

“Okay, but if I tell you to leave, you have to do it immediately. I don’t want Momma or Daddy to see us together.”

“Can I give you some friendly advice? You know, since we’re friends now.”

Channie lifted her eyebrows.

“Other kids might tease you if they hear you call your parents Momma and Daddy.”

“Well, they can just kiss my lily white ass. I don’t care what they think.” The sudden tightness in her chest and flush of heat creeping up her neck did not support her vehement declaration.

“Good for you.” Josh yanked the front wheel of his bicycle off the ground and grinned at Channie as he rode beside her. “I think we’re going to be great friends.”
 

Channie thought so too. She couldn’t keep from grinning back at him. “Now, can I ask you something? You know, since we’re friends.”

Josh laughed and nodded his head. “Sure, ask me anything.”

“Why are you friends with Eric?”

“I’ve known Eric Rickmond since grade school. We’re more friends out of habit than any thing else. He’s a jock and I’m … not. ”