And something totally different, too.
Since I was young, I’d had an affinity for plants.A green witch, apparently, and alchemy, and I were regular buddies.I was mixing concoctions for as long as I could remember in some shape or form, and I’d gotten pretty good at doing it sneakily just before Dad died in a car wreck.
Tea and a few mushrooms couldn’t stop a drunk driver from careening across the median and killing him, though.
Lizzie, on the other hand, wasn’t the green girl I was.Oh no, Lizzie’s specialty lay in reading people, and she meant that pretty damn literally.She could touch you and see all your vibes, your secrets, what lay ahead for you.
Reason one million and two that I tried so hard to keep my distance from her.
Number one, of course, was because if she did, if Lizzie got too close, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep myself from enjoying thatway toomuch.
Sure, she’d only been in my life for three years, and we were both adults now, but Lizzie was still, in fact, my stepsister.There were rules, and I wasn’t the type of person to just start breaking them willy-nilly.
You break one, and you might as well break them all.
It occurred to me that I’d been staring down at my bag for far too long now, and I shook myself, zipping up my suitcase and getting it down on the floor as I slung my backpack over one shoulder.This room wasn’t much, but it’d been mine my entire life.I’d only shared it with Lizzie during college breaks, and that wasn’t very often, considering how regularly she went out to do “other shit.”
Her words.
So, leaving the place now, for what felt like a much more permanent evacuation, felt…weird.There was no time to be overly sentimental, though, and we both still planned on visiting the house during breaks.I just wasn’t totally sure when those would be.We were headed to an academy for practitioners, and everything had been pretty mysterious about what precisely that would entail.
Circling my bed, I pulled my suitcase along the short-fiber rug at the foot of my bed and parked it so that I could close my closet.My bookshelves were mostly empty now, the books having been carted off to the dorm in that moving truck that came by yesterday.I was glad that the academy had allowed us to have things delivered early.Our dean, Professor Owens, had been very understanding about us coming to the school with no other magic folk in our lives, and somewhat late in the game, considering Lizzie and I had already graduated from college.
With oh-so-useful degrees in English and Art.
My plan had been to teach.I had no idea what Lizzie planned on doing with a BA in Art History, but knowing her, she hadn’t thought that far ahead either.
“Girls!You should get a move on!”My mother called up the stairs, and I snapped back to the present, forcing myself out of the worry over the future and regret over the past—a limbo I frequented more often than I’d like.
“Well, you heard Barbs, Temps.Let’s roll.”
Rolling my eyes, I adjusted my backpack and grabbed my suitcase again.Lizzie had a way with nicknames, and “Barbs” was pretty accurate with how warm and cozy my mom could be.Following her out, I ran my stare over Lizzie’s outfit again, both admiring the way her slim curves looked in the black leggings and the strip of flesh visible where her white crop top and leather jacket ended, and feeling sorry for myself because I justwasn’tlike that.
We trekked down the hallway, the white trim and teal walls so bright compared to the deep blue I’d painted my room when I was finally allowed.My style was very nightsky meets too many books, while my mother was much more the “Live, Laugh, Love Your Obsession With Bird Motifs.”
It wasn’t horrible.It could have beena lotworse, but there came a point where I was pretty sure it was illegal to own that many cheesy block quote decor items and pseudo-rustic bird cage thingies that were always paired with some generic watercolor print.
At the foot of the stairs, said bird lover—who’d never actually gone bird watching or owned one or even given them so much as a second thought—stood clutching her little crucifix that she’d taken to wearing after joining that support group for widows and widowers.She smiled up at us, and then Mr.Chamberlain came up behind her, resting his arm over her shoulders.
“We’re so proud of you girls.Drive safe and let us know when you arrive, alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, Dad.I’ll text.We’re twenty-two.Cut the umbilical.”
“Elizabeth!”Mom said, her expression morphing from one of embarrassing nostalgia to horror.“Don’t speak to your father like that.”
I bit my tongue as Lizzie rolled her eyes, going straight for the front door with her stuff and snagging her keys off the hook that hung on the wall, another whitewashed piece with a tiny bird-shaped hole drilled through the back.
“He’s got to be used to it by now, Barbs.”Casting a look at me over her shoulder, Lizzie gestured at the door with her head.“Come on, Temps!Train’s a’leaving.”
And that was it.That was the big goodbye.I hurried along after Lizzie, knowing with certainty that she’d leave me hanging if I didn’t, and the door shut behind me as I tried to catch up.Lizzie slid into the driver's seat of her BMW M3.
Having a well-off doctor for a father had its perks.
Putting my stuff in the trunk, I made sure it was shut and then got inside next to Lizzie.She fired up the car as we buckled up—it always shocked me that she actually wore the damn thing—and then she hard-reversed out of the driveway and sped off down the road out of town.
“Witch school here we come!”She rolled down the window, sticking her arm out, and cheered.“Get fucked, normies!”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and then, of course, Lizzie was rolling down my window.I would only be twenty-two and a new student at Night Grove Academy once right?So what was the harm in living it up a little?This was going to be the best time of our lives, finally able to use our gifts and grow them.For the first time in a while, I finally felt like things were looking up for “Towny Temps and Her Terrible Back Luck.”
