Shadow Girl
Book Two: Soul Searching
[Chapter Five: Jealousy]
Later April 10th
I kissed Moira. I'm not an expert on kissing or anything—I've only kissed two other girls in my life—but there was something definitely different about kissing Moira. Maybe it's the whole witch thing. I know it couldn't be that she's got loads of experience; she kind of blurted that it was her first kiss.
When I kissed Moira, it was like she was drawing out a strange, new part of me—a part of me that I didn't know existed. It was frightening, and yet amazing. Sort of like Moira herself.
Is this what falling in love feels like?
--Jordan
"Okay, okay, lemme get this straight," Jamie said, gasping for breath. "He kisses you, and you offer him Easy Mac?!"
I groaned and leaned back against my pillow, the cordless phone against my ear. I had originally called for Claire, but as soon as I mentioned Jordan's name, she did this strange, strangled, gasping, choking noise in the back of her throat and handed the phone over to Jamie. The afternoon had gone well, up to the point where my dad came home and found Jordan and I sitting on the couch—okay fine, we were making out on the couch. Dad didn't yell or anything, just kind of went a little mental, like the day I came home with red-streaked hair. But the most important thing was that while I was politely kicking Jordan out before my dad started rocking back and forth in the corner, Jordan asked me to be his girlfriend.
"Come on, it was my first kiss," I defended myself, hugging the star-shaped throw pillow on my bed. "I freaked out."
"Well, yeah, but Easy Mac?" There was a mumble in the background, and Jamie started laughing loudly.
A smile played on my lips. "What's so funny?"
"That was Claire."
At hearing her name, Claire said her statement louder. "The whole thing was so cheesy, your choice of food was perfect."
"James, tell your sister that when she falls head over heels for someone, I am going to laugh. Very loudly," I added so Claire would hear.
"Moira?" I looked up to see my mother standing in the doorway. "It's time for bed, hun." I gave her my just-a-few-more-minutes eyes, but she shook her head. "You have school tomorrow; you'll see your friends there. Say goodnight, Moira."
"G'night, Moira!" Mom put her hands on her hips and looked at me. "Fine, fine, I'm going," I mumbled. "Jamie, I--"
"Gotta go. Yeah, I heard. Don't worry, you can tell me all about Jordan tomorrow—and hey! We'll even get to see you two together, in action." I knew the last part was for Claire, and she responded by gagging dramatically.
I laughed and hung up. Then I turned to my mom. "So how's dear old Dad doing?"
Mom smirked. "Well, he's moved on from his my-daughter-was-snogging-with-a-boy drama, and is now writing some teenage boy butt-kicking spells."
I raised my eyebrows. "You're kidding, right?"
She smiled. "Of course." My mother sat down on the foot of the bed, saying, "He's just a little shocked. You've never even come close to having a crush on someone famous, much less having a boyfriend." Mom grinned at me, and said, "Tell me everything."
I grinned back, and launched into the whole story, starting with the basketball court and how I freaked when Jordan wanted to kiss me there, and how I told him to come to my house, and how he caught me dancing in the rain and kissed me there, with rain coming down on us. I told her about breaking down in front of Jordan and the embarrassment that I felt, and how Jordan comforted me. "Jordan just makes me feel so…right. It's like we were meant for each other." Mom raised her eyebrows at me and I said quickly, "But not in that mùirn beatha dàn way. Because Jordan's not a witch, and he'd have to be a witch for him to be my mùirn beatha dàn. So, ha. Mùirn beatha dàns don't exist." Mom poked me hard. "Except for you and Dad."
"Hmm…" Mom looked thoughtful, and I watched her carefully. "Moira, don't take this the wrong way, but…isn't this thing with Jordan going a little fast?"
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"Well, yesterday you were worried about Jordan even liking you. Today, you're making out with him on the couch." I looked down into my lap, but my mom leaned down to look at me. "Listen, when Mary K. was your age, she dated an older guy, and he tried to rape her twice." My eyes bugged as she continued. "I was there to stop him both times, but it still affected her very strongly. I don't want you to go through that kind of pain."
"Mom, I can take care of myself," I told her. "Aunt Mary K. is the kind of person that wouldn't hurt a fly. But I have fire power, and I'm not afraid to use it."
"I don't want it to come to that," Mom said. "I trust your judgment, but…just be careful, okay?"
"Don't worry, Mom. You won't end up being a young grandparent." She was looking pretty relieved until I said brightly, "There's spells to prevent that!"
Mom grabbed my pillow and hit me repeatedly with it. "Ahh, stop, I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" I crawled under my blankets to escape my mother's wrath.
"Get some sleep," Mom said lightly, and I could tell there were no hard feelings. I crawled up to my pillow and fell into a deep sleep, filled with dreams about Jordan.
* * *
The next day at school, all eyes were on Jordan and I, the cool new kid and the Wiccan witch. In the morning, before first period, Jordan kissed me hello over and over, pressing me gently up against my locker. My whole conversation with Mom had disappeared from my memory.
As we kissed, a tiny squeak interrupted us. We broke away and saw Courtney Hartford staring at us, looking like she'd been frozen in place. Jordan looked at me questioningly. "Uh…is she okay?"
"She will be." I snapped my fingers in front of her. Courtney didn't blink. "Just give her time to get over herself."
"You know her better than I do," Jordan said. The warning bell sounded, and he said, "I gotta run, babe. See you at lunch." Jordan kissed me on the cheek, making a loud "Mmmuah!" sound.
I let myself giggle. "Bye-bye." I watched him leave, then turned my attention to Courtney. "Okay, time to work on you."
I started lightly tapping her cheeks, and soon she twitched really hard. "Were you just kissing Jordan?" she asked me, wide-eyed.
"Uh, yeah. That's what girls usually do with their boyfriends," I told her.
"He's your boyfriend?" she squeaked, her eyes bulging.
I am about to see a cheerleader have a meltdown, I thought amusedly. "Yes," I told her. "He asked me out yesterday." I turned and began putting my books in my locker.
Courtney looked like she was about to hyperventilate. "How is this possible?" she asked nobody in particular.
"You know, you could just assume that Jordan likes me," I told her, feeling annoyed.
She looked at me with accusing eyes. "You know, people are seriously saying that you put some kind of spell on Jordan," she told me. "That the only reason he's hanging around with you is you're forcing him to."
I slammed my locker shut and looked at her. "Courtney. It's against the Wiccan Rede to do spells that mess with a person's free will. I would never do that. And even if it wasn't against the Rede, I still wouldn't do it. So you can just tell all your little friends, especially that Ashley chick, that they're just gonna have to get used to the idea that Jordan chose me over them. Okay?" I passed her by, going into my classroom.
"Hey." I turned around to look at Courtney. "I never said that I said it," she told me, with almost a hint of embarrassment in her voice. "I don't think you put a spell on him."
I looked at her for a few moments. "Thanks," I said finally. Courtney just looked at me apologetically and left, and I stood there, wondering if Courtney Hartford had actually been nice to me.
* * *
Lunchtime was unlike any other that I've ever experienced. Everyone stared at my coven's table, where I sat close to Jordan and he had his arm around my shoulders. Whispers of spells were abundant, like Courtney had said, but I brushed them off, and so did Jordan.
"Ugh," Claire gagged as Jordan kissed the tip of my nose. "You've done that five times in the last fifteen minutes."
"Isn't it precious?" Jamie kidded her sister, poking her arm.
"It's sickening," Claire disagreed, throwing a wad of napkins at me as I gazed into Jordan's eyes. "Isn't there a school rule against this?"
"Sorry," Jordan apologized, looking embarrassed. "I'll stop."
I nudged him with my elbow. "Don't you dare stop."
"You are evil," Claire said in astonishment as Jamie laughed and Jordan gave her an apologetic grin.
"You!" Without any warning I was dragged into a standing position by my right arm, and I whirled around to see Ashley Ballard glaring at me. Fury burned in her eyes. "What did you do to him?"
I blinked at her. "What did I do to who?"
Ashley shook me and yelled "Jordan!"
"Let go of me," I told her, pulling my arm out of her grip. Little indentions were left on my skin by her press-on nails. "What are you talking about?" Jordan had stood up, too, his hand resting on my waist.
Ashley's eyes flicked to Jordan, then back to me. "What kind of spell did you put on him?" she hissed.
I just looked hard at her. "I didn't put a spell on him."
"How could you even say that?" Jordan asked her, pulling me towards him. I didn't know if he was being protective or he thought I might attack Ashley. If it was the latter, it was an accurate assumption.
Ashley looked from Jordan's arm to Jordan, and then to me. "Why else would you be with her?!"
"You could just assume that he likes her." I could've sworn that the whole cafeteria gasped as we turned to see Courtney Hartford.
Ashley gaped at her fellow cheerleader. "Whaaat?!"
Courtney looked stricken. "But, you know, I'm probably wrong. I don't know anything. In fact, that's why I'm going to the library right now. To learn something." She giggled nervously, then said, "Bye!" and sped off.
"Wow," I said after a pause. "I was almost proud of her."
Ashley turned back to me. "Anyway. What was I saying?"
"I think you were going to leave," Jordan told her. "In fact, I highly suggest you do."
Ashley fixed him with her deadly glare. "You know, you had potential, Jordan. You really did. But then, you started hanging around with Moira, and--"
"And what?" Jordan interrupted loudly. "I didn't make the grade for you? I wasn't cool enough by your standards?" Ashley was taken aback by his harsh tone. "Well, here's some news: I don't give a damn."
People gasped at that louder than they gasped at Courtney's outburst. No one tells a cheerleader that they don't care about what she thinks of them, except me. They especially don't tell the head cheerleader that, again, except me. Ashley turned to look at me, her mouth gaping. All I would say was, "Isn't Jordan sexy when he's mad?" with a superior grin.
"You little--" Ashley came at me, arms raised to literally scratch me out, but suddenly she was thrown back into the table behind her, and her butt landed in someone's chicken pot pie.
The whole cafeteria burst into laughter, me leaning against Jordan as I cracked up. But in the pit of my stomach, something didn't feel right. I knew that afterwards, people would attribute Ashley's flying stunt to me, the Wiccan Witch of Widow's Vale.
But I knew that it wasn't me who did it.