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Chapter Nine

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Annoyingly enough, he has not seen his friends since that night at the bonfire. And every time he does see then around, they go out of their way to ignore him. Hmph. Some friends they were. They couldn't even tell him about Beth.

Beth and Matt.

He pauses in his tracks, ignoring the soft whinny from the horse beside him. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that they were siblings. And this whole time, he had no idea. He's never seen her around Matt and he's never heard his friend mention his family before. What had happened that made him so secretive? He frowns. Why did the mayor seem so interested in Matt's family anyway?

He sees a door open below the hill and a girl steps out of the doorway with a basket in her hands. He'd almost forgotten about laundry day.

"Piper!" He gasps.

She jumps at his voice and stiffens. Her brown eyes keep darting back and forth between him and her house as if searching for an escape. He sighs. Looks like she still didn't want to talk to him.

"You gonna explain what that was last night?" he asks her.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she diverts.

"What's the deal with Beth and Matt?" He grabs hold of the basket, earning a disapproving glare from her.

"Jack," she huffs and reaches for the basket but he moves it away from her hands.

"Ah, ah! No secrets, remember?" Jack reminds her of their promise as kids. "Matt already broke the pact."

She freezes at the mention of their friend's name, "Look, he... he didn't tell you because he didn't want you involved in his family drama."

"He kept it from me too," Jack winces at the sad expression on her face. "He didn't tell me until last night."

"I tried telling him that keeping it from us was silly," Piper sighs. "He just won't listen to me. It gets on my nerves!"

"And why do you like him again?" Jack teases her, smirking at her glare and ducks from an oncoming pillow case.

"I sometimes wonder that myself," she rolls her eyes and places her hands on her hips. "He doesn't tell me things."

"He still told you about his sister ," he points out, a little hurt that Matt couldn't even trust him.

"Only because I had to beat it out of him, " she reminds him.

"Did you pin him to the floor again?" he prompts, far too amused at the idea of Matt being beaten by a girl smaller than he is.

"Oh ho ho, yeah," Piper boasts, glancing down at her fingernails. "Knocked him over good if I say so myself."

"I am so proud of you."

"I try, " she shrugs.

"Seriously though, Piper, isn't there anything you can tell me about them?" he asks, getting back to the matter at hand.

"If he doesn't want to tell you, you should respect his wishes," Piper points out.

"Doesn't it bother you that he never told you about Beth?"

"Apparently not," Piper huffs, aggressively folding the blue knitted blanket in her hands. "I just... I just want all of us to be friends.

"Yeah," he gets distracted by the forest next to them. "Hey, Piper, I'm gonna head out for a bit."

"Where are you going?" Piper raises her eyebrows at his urgency.

"Trying to get the truth from the sources mouth," he tells her, hurrying along the dirt path. Her mouth curls into a surprised 'O' as he takes off. If Matt and Piper couldn't tell him then maybe Beth will.

The forest still gives him goosebumps everytime he walks through. He glances up at the trees and in between them, on high alert for those shadows. None. He sighs with relief but is still tense. Still feeling like he's being ng watched.

He slowly approaches the water and dips his bare feet in. There's no sign of Beth either. Weird. She's always here.

"Beth?" he calls out.

She jumps out of a tree, catching him off guard.

"Thought you weren't showing up today," he walks towards her and leans against a tree.

"I'm here every day," she tells him. She's not looking at him properly.

"So... you and Matt, huh?"

She averts her eyes. He doesn't miss the guilty expression on her face as she turns away to stare at the water.

"I didn't know he was going to be there at the bonfire," she says quietly.

"Well, I didn't know you two were siblings," he prompts, frowning at the little flinch she does when he inches closer towards her, trying to get her to look at him. "How am I supposed to help if I don't know?"

"If... Matt didn't say anything, he probably didn't want you to know," she's hesitant saying her brother's name.

"Yeah...but why wouldn't he want me to know?" he frowns at her.

"Because I'm a witch!" she exclaims. He shout startles him so much he jumps back. She looks so sad that he feels awful for bringing it up.

He could... he could understand that. Witches got bad reputation, for being supposedly evil. But, something's not adding up. She's still not telling him the full story. He doubts Matt will tell him the truth either; his friend's too good of a liar. He sighs softly. Alright, he'll let it slide for now. It hurt that they felt the need to hide from him. Sure, he played tricks on people. That's all he's ever done.

"You're not gonna tell me, are you?" He asks when he recovers from the shock. She stiffens and doesn't say anything. "Alright... I can take a hint."

He turns to leave.

"Are you really sure you want to learn magic?" she asks out of the blue, stopping him in his tracks.

He sends her a quizzical look, "Sure I'm sure," he confirms. "Why ask a silly thing like that?"

"Because... because the villagers might not be too keen on the idea," she says. She's still not looking at him properly. Why does she have to do that? "Once they find out that you're learning magic from me... they might shut you out too."

Jack certainly isn't too ignorant on magic being a taboo subject to speak of. He's heard the villagers talk of witch hunts and hangings.

"To be perfectly honest... I wouldn't really care," he admits. "Most adults go out of their way to ignore me anyway."

"Why's that?" she turns towards him, surprise on her features.

"I prank them way too much," He smiles sheepishly. "Apparently, I'm too childish."

"Yeah, I guess I can see that," she admits.

"Hey," he protests with a soft chuckle.

"I never really liked Burgess either," he admits. He tossed a stone onto the water, watching as it skips across the surface before sinking. "There's too many strict rules to follow. The only reason I haven't left yet is..."

"Because of your sister?" she guesses.

"Yeah," he smiles sheepishly.

"You're...you're lucky," she admits. She leans forward, crouching down so that her fingers brush over the water's surface. "I wish...Matt and I were as close as you and Emma are."

Now we're getting somewhere, Jack realizes. She opening up a little more about her and Matt. Maybe not telling him everything, but letting him know how she felt about their situation.

"I'm going to try talking to him."

"You can try but he won't listen," she says with bitterness hidden underneath her tone.

"I'll make him listen," he insists. "He can't avoid me forever."

Matt and Beth are hiding something from him. Why else would they hate each other so much to the point of ignoring each other? His mind drifts over to Emma who's probably home after playing hopscotch with her friends. Maybe they should play with the barn animals tomorrow.

"I'm... I'm going to head on home," he tells her, getting up, and brushing the dirt off of his poncho.

"Alright."

And he takes that as his cue to leave. Don't worry, Beth, he thinks as he makes his way down the forest path. I'm not going to let you down. It's terrible to think, but, he's glad that he and Emma are not like Beth and Matt.