The White Witch (3 page)

“No.” My father nods at Liz and she nudges me to walk away with her.

I don’t want to, I want to stay and listen, and apparently so does she because she doesn’t move us very far.

“That is my daughter over there, soaking wet, just having been interrogated by the police, and I want to know exactly what these officers have to say.”

The male officer sets his jaw and I can see his frustration with my dad, and I’m guessing this whole situation. He could be out solving crimes and instead he’s sent to a school to investigate an alleged assault by some teenage girls. Mr. Wentworth is sitting on a desk across from all of them setting his glare on the police.

Officer Williams begins addressing the Principal. “Mr. McIntyre, to be honest, we do not have anything new, nor do we have anything to prove that Miss Miller did anything wrong.”

Wentworth keeps his sight on the principal and doesn’t flinch.

“In fact, Miss Miller is fortunate she wasn’t hit or knocked down by the first lightning strike as the other ladies were.” He finishes with less sarcasm and intimidation than when he was talking to me.

For a brief moment, everyone is silenced.

Officer Grant looks at her partner with her brows furrowed. She moves her lips as if she is going to say something but seemingly decides not to question the senior officer.

“I was under the impression you said that it didn’t seem that lightning caused that first flash of light.” Principal McIntyre rubs the stubble on his chin.

“Well, considering that there was nothing at the scene or in Miss Miller’s belongings suggesting otherwise, we have no choice but to conclude that it had to be lightning.” Officer Williams turns to his partner, “Let’s go Grant.”

As he walks away I see him shaking his head back and forth, Mr. Wentworth’s gaze, still on him.

After over an hour in Principal McIntyre’s office with my parents, Samantha and her parents, the vice principal and Mr. Wentworth, we walked out with nothing more than what he called an unsolved mystery. He said it was raining too hard and the student’s emotions are running too high because of graduation to truly give an accurate account of what happened.

I was going to bring up Samantha’s bullying but considering that she was too scared to look at me the whole time we were there, I figured it was unnecessary. Though the Principal continued on about our grades and what model students we normally are, I couldn’t help but replay the entire scene in my head over and over again. I know that what I saw wasn’t lightning and though I don’t know what it was exactly, I have a funny feeling my guidance counselor does.

The dream rolls in like a fog.

I am standing in the middle of the parking lot by myself with no cars around me. The rain is falling hard, but I’m not wet, as if it’s missing me on purpose. Then suddenly Samantha and her goons appear. Circling me and taunting me. I hear the word freak, more times than I can count. Samantha tries to push me, but I don’t move. It’s like my feet are stuck to the ground. I feel the anger boiling up inside me again, like a tangible force trying to escape my body. Then come the beatings. Samantha punches me in the stomach, Nikki and Taylor punch me repeatedly in the ribs. I beg them to stop but this time they don’t and I still can’t move.

They are soaking wet and yet I am still dry. “Stop it!” I yell at them, and only Nikki and Taylor stop. Samantha steps back, shocked. I yell the same words I had yelled at school and I throw my hands down, but this time, I feel the surge of energy leave my body and escape me. I am surrounded with the blue and white light before it barrels toward them all, knocking them off their feet.

I bold upright in my bed, my breathing uncontrollable and my cami drenched with sweat.

“Katie?” My dad rushes in and sits on my bed, putting his hand against my clammy cheek and forehead. “You ok? We heard you screaming.”

Liz sits behind me, rubbing my back. “Were you having a nightmare, Lynnie?” She always called me Lynnie when she thought something was really wrong or I was hurt.

“Just dreaming about this morning.” I mumble as I rub the sleep from my face.

My dad runs his fingers through his hair and lets out a sigh. “Katie, we didn’t press you after we got out of school because you seemed really shaken up.” My dad adjusts himself so he is facing me completely now. “Is there anything you might have been afraid to tell the principal or the school regarding this morning?” He looks at my clock. Three twenty-five a.m. “Or rather, yesterday morning?”

“The only thing I didn’t say again, because it was evident in the story is that Samantha is a bully. She’s been bullying me since after that party where she told me I wasn’t her best friend anymore. It wasn’t constant until we got to High School. ”

Liz pulls me close to her, wrapping her arms around me. “Oh Lynnie, why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because you guys work really hard to send me to that school and I didn’t want to cause any problems there. So I just kept away from her as much as possible, and kept my grades up so that you wouldn’t worry.”

“Katelyn Elise Miller.” My dad rubs his face in frustration. “How could you keep something like that from us?”

“Because I was handling it dad.”

“By doing what?” He stands and begins to pace in front of my bed. “By isolating yourself? By not allowing yourself to have friends?”

“I was doing that well before I started Shippan High, Dad and you know it.” I raise my voice slightly but am sure to not cross the line.

He glances at Liz and I hear her sigh.

“See, you do know, you both know. Something happened nine years ago and I can’t explain it any more than I can explain what happened today.” I stand and start pacing just as my dad sits back down. “I don’t know what the hell went on. I can barely explain to you what I was feeling. All I know is that weird things have happened around me that I can’t explain. And either you two do know what is going on, or you love me too much to let it bother you.” I rub my own face and drag my hands back to my hair, taking a jagged breath. “All I know is that somewhere deep inside I have a feeling Samantha is right, I am a freak!” tears roll down my face, but I wipe them quickly.

Dad and Liz come over and sandwich me in a hug and I just stand there and let them. Despite how I am feeling right now, despite that I have never been more confused, a peace tries to fill me as my little family cocoons me.

“You’re not a freak.” My dad whispers onto my head. “You are the smartest, most beautiful, most loving and most sarcastic girl I know.”

I nudge my dad with my elbow. No matter my mood he still manages to make me smile.

“We love you Lynnie.” Liz kisses my head and lets me go.

“I love you guys too.” I walk over to my bed and sit down. “I just, I’d rather not even think about it all right now, if that’s ok.”

“That’s fine kiddo, we understand.” My dad throws me a kiss and grabs Liz by the hand, pulling her behind him as they leave.

I managed to fall back to sleep last night and not have any more nightmares. This morning though, I had to convince my dad that he didn’t have to stay around today to baby me. He and Liz left early for the rink because they are preparing to host some figure skating competition and have to make sure all the vendors have confirmed that they will be there and that all the paperwork has been signed.

I take a deep breath, enjoying the silence of the house on a Saturday morning. The stairs creak a bit as I walk down and head to the kitchen. My favorite mug sits next to the coffee maker, with a note in front of it. I open the note and catch the two twenty dollar bills that fall out.

Thought you might want to swing by the bookstore today.

Love,

Dad and Liz

And just like that, my morning gets a little better. I pour myself a cup of coffee and make my way over to my dad’s laptop that he left on the kitchen table. I punch in his password and see that as usual he had the news page up.

HEADLINE : Stamford rolls out the red carpet as business mogul L. James Blackwell II buys a 12.6 million dollar home on the Long Island Sound.

12.6 million, geez, I can’t even wrap my head around that number.
Oh well though, if you’ve got it, you’ve got it I guess
. I scroll down skimming over other headlines when I almost choke on my coffee.

Thunderstorms increase to record numbers Friday morning as several high school students are almost struck by lightning.

Great. Well, at least they aren’t mentioning anyone by name, or anything else that happened for that matter. I shut down the laptop, suddenly disinterested in the news and head upstairs to change.

The weather is still kind of gloomy even though the rain has subsided. Quite frankly I’ve had enough to last me a while. After circling the parking lot of the Town Center a couple of times, I find a space that’s not too far from the bookstore in case it does end up raining again. I walk past a truck waiting for a space when I am almost run down by a black SUV that apparently refused to wait behind the truck.

I duck between two cars and just barely avoid being hit. “What the…” I look at the plates and realize it’s the same SUV that took the stop sign the other day. What are the odds that two black Tahoes would be cruising around Shippan, both having New York License plates.

I make my way to the SUV who just pulled into a parking space, not ready to let him get away with this crappy driving twice.

“What the hell was that?” I start yelling as I approach the open door. “You almost ran me over!”

“I am so sorry.” I hear the voice call out before I even see the face. A pair of legs in blue jeans and sneakers swing out of the driver’s side, followed by a fitted polo shirt over a muscular chest and shoulders. He looks to be about my age, though I don’t recognize him from school at all. The bits of sun that have made their way through the clouds highlight his black hair as he sets his light blue eyes on me. His jaw is rougher than most of the guys I go to school with, making him look older than what I think he might be.

“You should be sorry. First you almost make me crash into you a couple of days ago and then you almost run me over!” I huff, throwing my hands up.

He closes the door behind him. “Oh man, that was you? Damn, now I really feel like an ass. I’m so sorry about that too. I was trying to catch up to the moving truck.”

I try staying really mad at him, but all I can manage after the apologies is frustration. “Look, I don’t know how they drive in New York, but here, we try
not
to run people over and we pay a little more attention to our surroundings.” As soon as I finish what I have to say I turn and walk away. I am pretty sure I hear him saying something but I ignore him and continue forward. Ugh, probably one of these rich guys that think they can do whatever they want and just get away with it. I can’t wait to graduate and get the hell away from guys like him.

I open the door to the bookstore and inhale. There’s just something about being in a bookstore or a library and having the smell of the books and all the knowledge and stories they contain surrounding you. I walk over to the Fiction section and begin running my finger along the spines of some of the books as I skim over the titles, taking some out to read the blurb on the back. After putting a few back that make it to my ‘maybe’ list, I start to look for conclusions to some of the series’ that I am currently reading. 

“Hey, so I didn’t catch your name.” The unfamiliar voice comes from directly behind me.

I drop the book I was pulling from the shelf and the mystery Tahoe guy gets to it before I do.

“Thanks, and you didn’t catch my name because I didn’t throw it.” I whisper, trying not to disturb the people around me. I put the book back on the shelf and walk away from him. Again.

“Look, I get that you’re mad at me,” He follows me into the next isle and a lady there gives us a sideways glance. “But I did apologize. Think we can start over? I’m new in town and the last thing I want to do is start off on the wrong foot with the first person I meet.”

“No worries, I’m sure you can try to run over a few more people and meet them too, they might even be more okay with it than I was.”

He laughs out loud and I can’t help but smirk at his laugh, it’s sweet and pretty refreshing. “Are you sure you’re not the one from New York? You seem like a pretty tough cookie.”

My gosh, what is with this guy? I’ve been nothing but mean and sarcastic and he’s still here. “Yeah, I’m sure. Just naturally sarcastic with people that try to kill me is all.”

He laughs again. Seriously? Either this guy has one of the best senses of humors ever, or he is desperate for a friend.

“You aren’t going to go that easily are you Polo?” I fold my arms across my chest.

He looks down at his shirt and grins. “No, not really.”

“So what, are you just one of these, ‘I can’t have anyone hate me type of people?’”

And, he’s still grinning. “Nope, just one of these, ‘wow, that chick is pretty spunky and funny’ so I want to know her people.”

“Spunky? Does anyone even use that word anymore?” I can’t help the giggle that escapes me.

“I used it.” He widens his eyes and opens his mouth, faking hurt, before ending in a smile. “So, what do you say, spunky?”

I sigh realizing that he is not going to give up. “Alright, the name is Katelyn.”

“That’s pretty.”  He reaches his hand toward me. “Pleasure to meet you Katelyn, I’m Logan.”

I reach out and shake his hand, unable to help the smirk on my face. “Pleasure to meet you too, Logan. So, do you normally stalk girls you almost kill in bookstores?”

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before setting them on me again. “You’re not letting that go anytime soon, are you?”

I raise my eyebrow at him. “Probably not, Polo.”

He raises both his hands. “Alright, alright, I guess I deserve that. So, Katelyn, what do the people of Stamford do for fun?”

“You’d have to ask other people in Stamford about that. I’m not what you’d call a partyer.” I end my sentence with air quotes.

“You’re not? Hm, seventeen or eighteen years old, hanging out in the bookstore on a Saturday morning-” He looks at his watch.

Holy crap is that a Tag Heuer?

“Yep, still morning.” He continues. “I thought you were the very definition of a partyer.” He ends his sentence with air quotes as well.

I smirk and squint my eyes at him.

“Guess you aren’t the only one that can spit out the sarcasm.” He smiles and his perfect white teeth almost gleam.

“Just watch where you spit it, Logan, I’m the only friend you’ve got so far.” I grab two books off the shelf completing a trilogy I’d started and head to the register.

“Good morning Miss Miller, just these two today? You know we are getting Kagawa’s latest release next week and next month Chloe Neill has a release as well, would you like to put a hold on one or both?”

“Not today, I’m good Mitch, thank you, just these two.”  He looks at Logan who is a few feet away, perusing some bookmarks. “Brought a friend with you?”

I glance at Logan quickly and the corners of his lips rise. “Something like that.” I shake my head and hand Mitch the money for my books.

“So where are we off to now Kate?” Logan leans in as he holds the door open, shining his bright smile at me.

“Well, one of we, thought it would be a great day to sit on the back porch and read a little before heading out to get some skating in.”

“Roller or ice?”