Family Magic, Chloe Price [christmas read aloud .txt] 📗

you here.”

I laughed and admired his cowboy costume from tight black jeans to black leather vest. He even had on one of those silly string ties and a set of fake six-shooters on his slim hips.

Yippee ki-yay.

“Yeah,” I said. “Fancy. Nice boots, Tex.”

He showed them off. “My whole family bought a pair last year on a trip,” he said. “Never thought I’d get a chance to wear them.”

“You look great,” I said.

“You too,” he winked. “Nice witch. Very classy.”

My sparkly, spandex, overly layered and frou-frou costume felt instantly humiliating.

“Thanks,” I rolled my eyes, giving in and adjusting my hat out of my face. “Could this be more hideous?”

Brad was about to reply when Suzanne’s voice cut through the noise in the room.

“Quiet, everyone!” she said. “Quiet! She’s coming!”

The place fell silent, filled with an air of expectation. Brad shrugged his shoulders, as confused as I was.

The door swung open and Alison walked in.

The pounding of my heart had to be audible in the total silence. I knew, just knew, something really horrible was about to happen. I didn’t want to witness it, no way.

I wasn’t about to be given a choice.

Suzanne swept toward Alison, her face a mask of evil revenge about to be delivered. I left Brad and made my way toward them, wracking my brain for a way to stop the inevitable horror the cheer squad had planned, to rescue my new friend from the punishment she was about to receive.

I was way too late.

“Alison,” Suzanne said loudly, so everyone would hear.

“Suzanne,” Alison’s voice was soft but clear. She saw me heading her way and flashed me a secret, sad little smile. I stopped moving. She knew. She had known before she even got to the front door. And she was there anyway, to take it.

My respect for her notched up, big time.

Suzanne starting circling, her zombie girls following suit. It made Alison, dressed in her school colors, look like the sole survivor of a tragic cheerleader accident.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” Suzanne hissed. “Thought you’d be too chicken to take your medicine.”

Alison’s head went up, shoulders back. “You invited me, Suzanne,” she said. “So I came.”

“You didn’t really think you were welcome to the party,” Suzanne faked shock. “Did you?”

“You told me to come,” Alison said.

“To bring back your uniform,” Suzanne corrected, in her face so closely I’m sure Alison was having trouble focusing on the other girl’s eyes.

“I brought it,” Alison said.

“You weren’t supposed to be wearing it,” Suzanne flicked her hand across Alison’s sleeve. “You were supposed to return it so we could burn it.”

The cheerleaders snickered while the rest of the party guests made a quiet and rapid retreat as far away from the action as possible without drawing attention. They needn’t have worried. No one looked at anyone but the newest fallen angel.

“I guess I misunderstood,” Alison said. No one believed her.

“You can’t leave with that uniform,” Suzanne snarled from between clenched teeth. “I won’t allow it.”

Alison frowned for the first time. “What are you going to do, Suzanne?” She half-laughed. “Take it off of me?”

I knew then, even if Alison didn’t, she made a terrible mistake giving Suzanne that kind of idea.

“As a matter of fact…” Suzanne’s voice trailed off as she backed up, a satisfied smirk on her face. She snapped her fingers at one of her girls. The cheerleader stepped forward.

Suzanne examined Alison from top to bottom.

“I think your uniform is missing something.”

As if on cue, the other girl threw a glass of red punch at Alison. It soaked through her sweater, dripping down the front of her short skirt, fat crystal drops gathering at the hem to fall in almost slow motion to the growing puddle on the floor at her feet.

I fought off my demon and made a move, but a strong hand held me back. Brad shook his head.

Suzanne went on, oblivious to me.

“It just doesn’t suit you anymore, Alison.”

Another girl stepped up, taking her place next to the first.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Alison seemed to recognize she created a very dangerous monster in Suzanne. Her eyes flickered to me. I pulled against Brad. He refused to let me go.

The two girls stepped forward. Each grabbed a handful of Alison’s skirt.

“You’re not one of us anymore,” Suzanne said.

The cheerleaders pulled. The whole room gasped. I saw Alison struggle, try to get away. The crowd screamed, some chanting to get her, some horrified at what they witnessed. It took me a moment to accept I was one of them.

Alison’s struggles only made things worse. With great, heavy rending sounds, the material of her skirt tore and gave way, the violence of the assault jerking her almost off of her feet as she was hauled at from every direction. I could see the tears on her face and hear her broken sobs but didn’t have the power in that horrible instant to free myself from Brad and help her.

I will always regret it.

Her skirt fell away. She staggered to her knees. I lost sight of her as the cheerleaders surrounded her crumpled form and finished the job, the sound of her sweater ripping apart more appalling than flesh being torn from the bone.

Finally, it was done. The panting pack of vengeance backed away, clutching bits and pieces of the destroyed uniform in their hands. To my horror, I noticed one of them was Page, her beautiful face masked with hideous satisfaction. Alison huddled on the cold tile floor, face streaked in tears, skin red and bruising where the mob pulled on her clothes. She pulled herself to her feet and was left standing there, with only a tiny tank top and a pair of boy shorts covering her.

She straightened, brushing tears from her cheeks, her sobs silenced, and did the most amazing thing I have ever seen anyone do ever.

Alison straightened her shoulders and stared Suzanne down.

I pushed forward, freeing myself from Brad, furious every other person in the crowd did nothing to help her, but angrier with myself I let Brad stop me in the first place.

I reached the circle of humiliation in time to offer Alison my huge, sparkly witch shawl. She took it with a gracious smile, back straight, brave face on. Her torn uniform lay scattered around her, parts of it still in the hands of some of the girls who were truly evil standing there in a vicious pack.

I spun on Suzanne, furious. “What the hell is wrong with you people?” Suzanne backed up a step but her nasty expression didn’t change.

“Stay out of this, Syd,” she snarled.

“Or what?” I closed the distance between us. “You’ll do this to me?”

She glared at me. “Maybe,” she hissed.

“Try it,” I growled back. “I won’t stand here and take it.”

I turned back to Alison who watched me with a softly hopeful, brittle expression making my heart break. She wrapped the shawl more tightly around herself, gathering it and what was left of her dignity around her. I pushed my way through the crowd, leading her to the door. I jerked it open. She walked though, a thankful expression on her face. She disappeared outside as I turned back. My eyes fell on Brad and I knew he was as hurt as I was about it but just too weak to act.

Fine. I could handle it on my own, thank you very much.

“You people make me sick,” I snapped.

My lessons forgotten in my anger, my shields failed and my demon took me literally.

As I slammed the door behind me, I heard the horrific sound of almost a hundred kids being overwhelmed with a violent case of food poisoning. Chapter Twenty Three

I paused on the front step, horrified at what I did but at the same time unwilling to reverse it. I may not have planned it, but it seemed a fitting punishment for such disgusting people.

Knowing I myself would be punished by the coven, I slumped my way down the driveway to the street, dragging my feet as I headed home.

To my surprise, I stumbled on Alison. She sat on the curb with the borrowed shawl wrapped around her, staring blankly out into the street. I stopped, not sure what to do but unwilling to leave her there alone.

I took a seat next to her, hugging my knees, discarding the hat to one side.

“Thanks,” she said.

“My pleasure,” I answered. “I just wish…”

“What?” She toyed with the laces of her red stained sneakers, once pristine white.

“That I reached you sooner. Before they… you know.”

She hugged the shawl to her. “It’s tradition. I was expecting it.”

“What?” How horrible was that?

“Well,” she said, “not quite that way. But when you are kicked off the squad, you have to give your uniform back. The girls usually make a big deal of it. But I think I’m the first to be publicly stripped.”

She gazed off down the street as she spoke. I knew it was because if she looked at me while she said it, her resolve would break and she would burst into tears. How did I know? Because I would have.

I shook my head in disbelief. It made me sick.

“Sorry,” I said, “but I still wouldn’t have done what you did.”

“I know,” she said. “Pretty stupid, huh? I thought I could be, you know, tough about it, like I didn’t care.”

“I think they got that,” I said.

She laughed bitterly. “You probably would have destroyed it yourself and left it in her mailbox or something, wouldn’t you?”

“Or something,” I muttered, thinking far darker thoughts. Like a midnight visit from a scary demon or two for Miss Suzanne and her bitch squad.

“It’s okay,” Alison said. “I really did deserve it, Syd.”

“No one deserves that,” I argued. “No one.”

“I guess not,” she said.

“Would you have done it?” I challenged her.

She blushed but didn’t turn away.

Wow.

“The old me,” was her answer. “Thanks to you, I’ve turned over a whole new leaf. My mom hates it,” she giggled. “Not that she’s around much, but she doesn’t know what to do with me now.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of going through the same thing with my mom,” I said.

“Well, I guess I’ll go home.” She didn’t seem very happy at the prospect. To be honest, neither was I. How was I going to explain this? I watched a couple of little kids decked out as super heroes wander across the street in their costumes. I wondered if Meira was having fun.

“Well, I can’t go home yet,” I answered.

“I hope I didn’t get you into trouble,” Alison said.

“Not exactly,” I winced a little. “It’s just… there’ll be the questioning and the meddling and the grilling and after that the third degree, and I’m not in the mood at the moment.”

Alison laughed. “Lucky you,” she said.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked.

She shook her head and rested her chin on her knees. “I wish,” she said so softly I had to lean in to hear her. “There’s no one at my house.”

In a flash of insight, I knew exactly why Alison was the way she was. I felt a huge rush of regret for her. I struggled my whole life against the enveloping pressure of my family, feeling smothered and overwhelmed they wanted to be the center of my life.

Alison was my opposite. I could barely imagine it.

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