Legacy

The Young Witch’s Chronicles ~ Book I

Legacy

by Calista Anastasia

Copyright © 2012 by Calista
Anastasia

Cover art by LFD Designs

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may qu
ote short excerpts in a review.

Contact:
[email protected]
.

Legacy
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are purely products of the author’s imagination.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this
author.

Dedication

My heartfelt appreciation goes to the fabulous and multi-published author, Dotti Enderle, for her friendship and advice and also to the equally fabulous Candace Fitzpatrick whose rock-steady friendship sustains me.
Love you both.

C
HAPTER
O
NE

T
he bell
went off
like a bomb
detonating
inside her head.
She filed out of her last period class
, envisioning herself as a robot shuffling down the hall to her locker. She twirled her combination and
swung the door wide. St
uff
ing
the books she needed into her backpack
, she turned
toward the exit.
Raised voices and the clang of metal rebound
ed
off the hard surfaces
to assault her ears
.
She trudged
along, eager to escape the din and
find others of her species.

She
merged with
the rest of the
s
tudents pour
ing
out of T
anners
ville
High
School
like ants swarming out of a flooded hill
.

Mercy
Young
carefully
climbed
down
the
wo
rn
granite
steps, her arms loaded with library books for her
English
paper
. Her bulging backpack with its
broken zipper
hung
heavily
on her arm.

She made it to the sidewalk
without losing her load
and looked around for her friends
,
but when she didn’t see them, headed for the flagpole, their rendezvous point. She rested against the big concrete base and balanced the backpa
ck on the edge.

Raising her face, she closed her eyes allowing the afternoon sun to warm her.
C’mon. Gimme some Vitamin D
, and maybe a cool tan
.

She heard a commotion
; picked out a
particular voice
and opened her eyes.
When she located the source she
sucked in a breath and
st
ood
up
straighter
.
There he is, his Royal Awesomeness
. She felt a strangling sensation like all the air was being sucked out of her lungs.
OMG! He's looking straight at me!
She wished her hands weren't full so she could at least brush her hair out of her eyes. The long blonde strands were flying around in the breeze.
I should have brushed it.
I should have used a
scrunchy
.

Greg Lambert
, the absolute cutest boy ever, was staring at her. He looked away when one of his buds from baseball pushed him. He laughed and shoved back, but just for a moment
he was actually looking at her.

She tried to breathe in and out like a normal person.
Yeah, right. Like Greg Lambert would ever notice me.
She
tried not to stare
as he joked with
some of his
jock friends.
He glanced at Mercy
again
before he swung his backpack and gear on the
ground.
His friends clustered around him,
hoot
ing and jo
stli
ng
, but Greg was taller and she could see his brown hair above the
hor
d
e
.

Mercy stared at his profile as he talked with his friends.
Whenever he looked at her, her cheeks got pink and she found someplace else to gaze.
She should have smiled when he glanced at her. She should have waved. She sighed
.
Like that’s ever gonna happen
.

She spied
one of
her best friend
s
, Felicity Porter, leaving the auditorium carrying her cello case in front of her like an elephant carries its trunk.
She looked
s
o
very
serious as she threaded her way through t
he stream of jostling students.

Mercy looked over the crowd of students
.
Bleh! Here comes trouble
.
Her stomach clenched when
Lindy
Boyd, Amy Hoffman and Becca Mandrake
emerged from the building
giggling and squealing
,
as usual.
Lindy
led the way, as usual and she pranced straight up to Greg, as usual.

“Hi Greg!” she sang.
When she waved
at him
,
the
silver
charm bracelet on her wrist jingle jangled. "Yo
u were so aw
esome at the game Saturday
.
I could have just died when you hit the ball into the infield.” She
bellowed out a laugh
that
sound
ed
like a
demented
donkey
bray
, but Greg seemed to like it. He grinned and
look
ed pleased.

Mercy tried not to frown and when she felt her lower lip jutting out, she sucked it back in.
How could Greg be
snar
ed by
Lindy
’s flirtatious fawning?
I wish she would get what she deserves.

Lindy
stepped back and fell flat on her bottom. She looked s
hock
ed
and
turned
bright
red when the baseball players laughed. Greg offered a hand
,
but her girlfriends clustered around to help her scramble to her feet.

Mercy couldn’t h
elp but giggle at all the fuss.

Lindy
’s face twisted into a sneer as she spun ar
ound
to
face
Mercy
. “What are you looking at,
Brainiac
?”

Mercy’s stomach roiled as she heard the familiar epithet.
Lindy had called her this since grade school when her straight A
report cards were acknowledged in school and her
starred papers
were displayed around the room by her proud teachers. Now, it was accepted all over school. Mercy and her friends were the official nerds of
Tannersville
High and as such, had an
astronomical
cootie count which made them untouchable by those with a much cooler ranking.

Lindy’s eyes narrowed
to mean little slits. S
he strode to where Mercy stood and
knocked
her
backpack off the
ledge
.
The zipper split open, spilling the contents on the ground.
The
other girls laughed.
Lindy
tossed her hair
, her silver
charm
bracelet jingle-jangling on her wrist. She
turned, st
omp
ing
back
to
where her friends grouped
in a herd
.

M
e
rcy
’s
cheeks burn
ed
. The laughter died down and she knelt to
gather her books and homework.

“
I’ll
help you.”

She looked up to find herself staring into big, brown eyes the color of melted chocolate. “Oh, I…um…”

Greg smiled. He
squatted down beside her
and
began to collect her books.
“Here ya go.”
He grinned at M
e
rcy and stuffed
t
he books
back
into he
r ragged
backpack as she straightened he
r
papers.

“Thanks, Greg,” she said
,
but couldn’t meet his gaze.
Her chest felt li
ke it was filled with feathers.

“Don’t let those girls get to you.” He hoisted the backpack onto the
ledge
and s
tood, leaning against the concrete
.
He held two of he
r library books in one big paw.

Mercy was aware that
Lindy
and her friends were staring.
Feeling the weight of their gaze, she tried to ignore them. She took a moment before st
and
ing
up
with as much grace as she could muster. S
uck
ing
in
a deep breath
, she
let it out before casting a shy smile at Greg.

“So,
were you at
the game on Saturday?” he asked.

“Um, no. My grandmother needed me.”
Man, that was
lame
!
He
’ll
think
I’m
some
kind of
nerdy
b
rainiac
like
Lindy
and her friends call
me
.
“I mean, she needed me to do
something for her.”
Duh!
Yeah, t
hat was a
whole
lot better
.

He nodded. “That’s cool. I made two hits. I wish you could have
s
een
me
.” He sounded like he really meant it.

“Me too.” She looked up to see
Felicity
making her way down the
front steps
,
the cello case leading the way.

Lindy gestured toward Felicity and she and Becca laughed
.

"
Oh, no!
"
Train wreck
!
Mercy
hurried to
the bottom of the steps and
reach
ed
for the instrument, hoping to guide
Felicity
past
Lindy
and her spiteful friends.

Lindy
snickered and stuck out her foot to trip
Felicity
,
but got the cello instead, resulting in Mercy catching the cello and
Felicity
stomping on
Lindy
’s foot.

“Yowch! You clumsy
cow
! Watch where you’re going.”
Lindy's face drew into a snarl, her teeth
bared like a dog about to bite.

Amy and Becca
gathered round to commiserate with her. “
T
he grace of a water buffalo.” “Unbelievable!
”
“
Baby hippo.”