Wish (3 page)

“A
Grant witch?” I repeated.

“Once the wish takes effect.” Her lips tightened and she
shook her head.  “That poor boy.”

Downstairs the doorbell rang.

I jumped up and the book banged on the floor. I backed away. From
it and her. Nana was losing her marbolee’ahs.  “You’re scaring me.”  I gestured
to the book. “That’s just an old book. There’s a logical explanation for all
this.”

“Sydney,” Cody called up from the bottom of the stairs.  I
ignored him and tried to smile at Nana. Keep her calm.

“Sydney,” he bellowed again.

“Not now,” I shouted back.

“Sydney. I think you’re going to want to come to the door.”

“Cody. I’m busy with Nana.” I smiled again, to reassure her. Who
would look after Cody and me when they took her away? The Institute. The Looney
Bin. Hopefully we’d get a family rate.

Footsteps clumped up the stairs and then there was pounding
on my bedroom door down the hall.

“We’re in here, Cody,” Nana called out. Her face was calm.
Almost serene. She sat perched on the bed, petting the cat.

The footsteps moved to outside my mom’s room where I was
trapped with the mad woman.

Cody opened the door and peeked head inside. “What are you
doing in here?”

“Female stuff, Cody,” Nana said.

“Great.”  He frowned, shook his head, and then looked at me.
“Sydney, Mike Cameron is here.”

My heartbeat actually stopped. Okay, maybe it just felt like
it did for the one second I imagined Mike Cameron at my door. For me. And then
remembered. Oh yeah. I’m me. Cody was jerking me around. I crossed my arms and
glared at him.

“Seriously.” He lifted his thumb and index finger to his
mouth and pretended to inhale. “I think he’s on something. He’s got flowers,
and a whacked out look on his face.”

“He’s on something all right. But it’s not what you think,
Cody,” Nana said and glared at me. “I think the wish has taken affect now.
Don’t you, Sydney?” She nonchalantly kicked the book under the bed with her
foot and while her head was down I lifted my finger to the side of my head,
making the same circular motion Stevie made earlier. Cody frowned. I
understood. Nana was our rock; we didn’t need her cracking up, too.

“Go and see Mike,” Nana told me. “He’s here and you have to
talk to him.  Convince him he’s not in love with you.”

“I don’t want to talk to Mike. He’s not in love with me.”

“Go.” Nana chased me down the stairs so fast I didn’t have
time to worry what I wearing or what I could possibly say to Mike Cameron. 

Mike was practically floating in the doorway, with a big
bouquet of flowers in his hands and a weird expression on his face. He was also
staring at me with utter adoration. Me? I stopped on the last stair and Nana
bumped right into me, Cody into her.

“Sydney,” Mike ran forward shoving the flowers at me. Tulips.

“Uh. Hi, Mike.” I reluctantly took the tulips and then
glanced at Nana for help. Boys bearing flowers was not a normal occurrence in
my world. Nana might be old, but she’d been hot in her time. She’d know what to
do.

She pushed me forward and came down the last step, grabbing
the flowers from me. “Cody, go find a vase,” she barked without taking her eyes
off of Mike.

“I have no idea where we keep vases,” Cody said.

“The kitchen. Go!” Nana said.

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” Mike said and smiled at me.

Cody coughed on his way towards the kitchen.  I heard him
cough, “Weirdo” under his breath. Magic slithered down the stairs then, and hissed
at Mike when he passed him. I picked Magic up to quiet him, glad to have
something to cling to.

“Uh. Thanks?” I shifted from foot to foot thinking the
fantasy of Mike being in love with me was so much better than reality. He
looked like a big dope now.  In my house. Bringing flowers. Ugh.

 “Mike,” Nana said. “I see you are quite taken with Sydney.”

Mike nodded, not taking his eyes off of me. Magic hissed
again.

Okay. This was definitely high in the creep-zone. He didn’t even
look like the boy I’d seen at school earlier that day. Then, he’d looked right
through me as he always did. Now he stared at me as if I’d become the most
beautiful girl in the whole world. I looked down for a clue. Nope. No sudden
cleavage, nothing new. Still the same old me.

“Uh. No offense, Mike I didn’t even know you knew my name.”

“I’ve been on the Internet since I broke up with Jenny. I
found out everything I could about you.”

Great. I’d apparently put a stalking spell on him.  Wait.
He’d broken up with Jenny?

“Can I take you to a movie?” he asked.

“Uh,” I managed.

“Absolutely not,” Nana cut in.

She left no room for argument and frankly that suited me
fine. I didn’t want to go out with this Mike. Boys did not look at me like
that.

“Well,” I said, hoping he’d take the hint and take a hike.
“See you around?”

“I need to take you out. You’re all I can think about. Tomorrow
night? The next? How about the one after? What’s your cell number?”

“I’m not allowed to give it out.” I glanced at Nana hoping she
wouldn’t contradict me. “And I have an archaic phone? It’s a friggin flip
phone. It doesn’t even have a camera. Have you ever met anyone without a decent
smart phone?”

I swear I was the only kid alive who wasn’t connected to the
world by my cell phone. I tried and tried but she wouldn’t give in.

“This world is so much more complicated than it used to be,”
she said. “And more so now. The last thing you need is a phone that can do more
things than a warlock.”

I shot her a fierce look but she actually looked at me, and
said, “No iPhone.”

Cody walked back into the hallway then with a glass vase in
his hand. “Dude,” he said to Mike.  “What’s your problem?” He arched an eyebrow
high and handed the vase to Nana. She thrust the flowers inside and rushed them
to a coffee table in the hall.

Mike didn’t take his eyes off me.

“Have some self-respect, man,” Cody said.

“But your sister is so beautiful.”

“Dude, she’s not beautiful. She’s a runt. Get a grip.” Cody’s
eyebrow rose again as if he were contemplating punching Mike out. I might be
okay with that. As long as there was no blood.

“Don’t you have something to say to Mike?” Nana said.

“No. I don’t.”

She opened her eyes wider.

“Um. Don’t be in love with me. I’m bad. The worst. I chew up
boys and spit them out. Grrrrrrr.” I put my hands up like I was going to claw
at him.

Cody laughed out loud. Nana smacked both our arms.

“I’ll take my chances,” Mike said with a sigh and I held back
a huge eye roll. His cool factor had slipped to zero. Negative.

“Okay. Time for you to go,” Nana said clapping her hands. “Sydney
has important business to take care of. No more crushes.” Nana pushed on the
back of Mike’s white t-shirt, moving him towards the front door.

Mike turned his head, watching me over longingly over his
shoulder as Nana shoed him out the door. “I’ll call you,” he yelled as he went
out the door.

“I’ll call you too,” I mumbled. “Psycho,” I said under my
breath. I bent down and picked up Magic and rubbed my cheek against his warm
body. As much I wanted to believe this was a natural occurrence, something was
going on. The only way Mike Cameron would act that way was if he was on
something. 

“You got that right,” Cody agreed. “He is definitely on
something.”

I glared at Cody. “What?”

“You just said he was on something.”

I hadn’t spoken out loud.

“I didn’t say anything,” I told him.

Cody scrunched up his face as if a skunk had sprayed nearby.
“Whatever. You are seriously freaking out more than usual today. What the heck
is Mike thinking?”

I stared at Cody and concentrated hard.

He’s thinking that I’m the hottest girl in town. Way hotter
than Jenny Truman.

Cody snorted. “You wish. She’s annoying. But she’s hot.”

I stared at him. I hadn’t opened my mouth.

Nana bustled back to us after rushing Mike outside.
Upstairs,” she instructed me. “Cody, give us some privacy. Go.”

Cody stared at both of us; and then shook his head and
muttered. “Why couldn’t I have been born into a normal family?”

“Funny, Cody,” Nana said.

“Why don’t you go round up some friends to shoot hoops?” Nana
called as she hurried me along.

“Stevie’s good at hoops,” I couldn’t resist yelling as Nana
nudged me in the back with her long fingernails.

“I’m so not asking your weird side-kick to play basketball,”
he muttered and slammed the door behind him as he headed outside.

“I think he’s got a crush on Stevie,” I said.

“Of course he has a crush on her. He’s a Kindred. So is Stevie.
They won’t realize it for a few years. I hope. Maybe this will speed things
up,” Nana said.

“Of course they’re Kindreds,” I said, like I had any idea
what she was talking about. Also Nana. I think Cody read my mind.”

“Not really. He can’t read your mind, he can only pick up
thoughts you send out on purpose. You control it, not him. Or you would if
you’d been trained. You will.” She shakes her head and pushed me to move faster
up the stairs. “Kindreds have no powers, though they’re kind of like receptors.
He’s probably feeling a lot of this flux going on with you, even if he doesn’t
know what it is.” Nana pushed me down the hall to Mom’s room.

“Flux?
Kindreds? ” I went inside Mom’s room and headed to her bed and flopped down on
my back. Magic jumped away from me with a meow. I closed my eyes, not really
wanting answers.

“Kindred’s
are friends of witches. They’re destined to be born around witches. They
navigate to them before birth. Kindred are re-born again and again. They don’t
have powers, but they help channel them. They understand and occupy both the
human and the witch world.”

“There’s a witch world?”

“Well. Not a separate world. Not anymore. It’s too dangerous
now. Witches have learned to exist among the humans. But we keep our identity
secret from humans. It’s dangerous to let humans know of our powers. It
frightens most but some try to manipulate us. Unless they’re Kindreds, we stay
hidden within their world. It’s very complicated. There’s so much to teach
you.”

I opened my eyes to see that she was standing over me,
staring down at me. “Are you just making up all this stuff so I won’t know I’m
going crazy like all the other women in our family?” I ask her.

“You’re not crazy.” Her expression softened. The crazy gene seems
like a bad case of lice we can’t kill off in the Grant family. It’s happened to
many generations of Grant women. Cody told me that. He’d done some family tree
stuff for school. I’d thought about it when Mom left.

Nan sat on the end of the bed and sighed. “I’d like to kill
your mother.”

“You too?”  I asked.

Nana made a face at me as she stood. “The Institute is not a
psychiatric hospital,” she said softly. “I know you and Cody have wanted to
believe that. I didn’t really give you any reason not to. It seemed almost
easier. Mental health is not something to be ashamed of.”

      Nana reached down and touched me and I pulled back, as
if she’d given me a shock. Which she actually had. “You told us it was a
psychiatric hospital.”

“No. I said it was the Institute. You and Cody assumed what
it was. I didn’t correct you.”

I pictured Mom as she left the house almost a year ago, only one
small suitcase in her hand. Her purse over her shoulder.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She’d bent down and
whispered in my ear. “As soon as I can. I’m sorry, but I have to do this. Trust
me, okay Sydney. You’re stronger than you think. Take care of your brother and
Nana. Trust me, okay? And trust yourself. Always.”

She’d hugged me close but I’d stared at the floor my hands
hanging down my side, not returning it, knowing she was wrong. I wasn’t strong
at all. I couldn’t look after anyone. I wanted her to stay, to look after me. I
didn’t want her somewhere else. I wanted her to stay and do her job. Be a mom. 

      I bit my lip hard. I wanted to cover my ears and close
my eyes. My jaw hurt from clenching.

      “What’s she doing then? Lounging on a beach in
Jamaica?” I stabbed at my eyes to keep the moisture inside.

      Nana grabbed my hand, squeezing hard. “She’s not at the
beach, she is at the Institute.”

      “What the heck is the Institute then? For real?”

Nana kept a firm grip on my hand. “It’s a place witches go,
when there’s danger. It’s sacred. Sentries can’t sense witches there.”

I closed my eyes, pretending to go along.  “And where is it,
if not Jamaica?”