Chapter 143
Heather
The schoolhouse looked prettier during the day. It had a large porch on the front and the wood was painted a bright white that gleamed in the sun. Large windows let a ton of light into the main room, which was filled with tables. Kids worked in groups of threes. A few older ladies walked around, pointing and making comments.
"Follow me," Claudia said.
I did, and Raphael took up the rear.
Claudia didn’t knock. She just walked in. Everyone stopped.
One of the women rushed to the front. She was wearing a pair of wide-leg jeans and a flowing top with a paisley print. Her hair was fully gray, but it hung long and wavy down her back. "Claudia. Raphael. You know that Luciana doesn’t want her here with the other students." The woman moved toward us with her hands out, as if to say we shouldn’t go any farther.
"I understand that, but Daniel has been having trouble teaching her a few things, and we thought it’d be best to bring her here. She needs to learn, and what better way than how I did?" Claudia gave her a brilliant grin.
Whoa. Way to throw the guy under the bus, Claudia. But it was working. The lady had stopped trying to herd us back toward the door.
The lady rubbed her hands along the front of her jeans. "Yes, well..."
"Look, I don’t want to put anyone out, but I’ve been kind of hiding in their house, and I’m going a little crazy. The learning isn’t going well, and I just want to meet some more people. If this is my coven, then shouldn’t that be normal?"
"Yes, but you’re not...I mean...it’s just that Luciana—"
"Why don’t we just let her try a little bit?" Claudia asked in a voice that was so sweet it was almost sickening. "If she wasn’t meant to be here—if it wasn’t good for our coven—wouldn’t Luciana be here already?"
That stopped her. "I...Yes, of course. That’s very wise of you, Claudia."
Way to go, Claudia. I spotted Cosette and Elsa at a table in the back of the room. Daniel and Shane were in the back, too. I wondered if Daniel would be pissed at Claudia, but he gave her a thumbs-up.
"I’m sorry for being less than welcoming," the older woman said. "I’m Mary. If you find a spot, maybe with..." She looked around the room. "With Cosette and Elsa. Then we can continue on our lesson. We’re working on a spell for spiritual healing."
Spiritual healing? Trying not to roll my eyes took way more effort than it should’ve. I walked around the room and took a spot.
If I made it through this class without being completely condescending, it’d be a miracle.
Spiritual healing? Were they serious? No wonder Luciana had them all under her thumb. They didn’t know how to do anything. At least Daniel had gone straight to protection spells to keep anyone from messing with me or my things.
This was going to be a long day. I hoped it was worth it.
To put it nicely, I wasn’t going to be healing anyone anytime soon. Thank God that wasn’t why people were coming to me for help. Nope. I was just supposed to fix the whole coven.
I cleaned up the ingredients we’d used in the potion—placing the unused stuff into their labeled jars and burning all the odd leftover bits in one giant cauldron that had been ’tainted’ by the day’s work. As I stepped away from the table to leave, a girl got in my face.
"You’re not welcome here. Don’t come back to the schoolhouse." Her black hair was pin-straight. It fell in a sheet down her back. Her eyes were a little too far apart and her nose a little too hawked to ever allow her to be called pretty.
"I’m supposedly part of this coven. I’m here to help," I said.
"We don’t need your help. You’re wasting your time."
"Then why did Luciana drag me here? I’m happy to go home."
As soon as she grinned, I knew she knew something about it. "Don’t worry about that. After the month is done, we don’t ever want to see you again."
The rest of the class had gathered around her. Besides the people I knew, only the one old lady and two others stood off to the side, looking awkward. The rest looked as angry and put out as this girl did.
"Right. So I do my time, and then I go home."
"If you’re still around by then..."
Still around? "That sounds a lot like a threat. Are you insinuating that my safety is in danger while I’m here?"
"You’re the precog. Shouldn’t you be able to answer that?" A few people laughed.
It was surreal. I’d been made fun of a lot in my life. This scene wasn’t anything new to me. In fact, it was almost tame. I’d been slammed into lockers. Beaten. Accosted. Had a few unwelcome guys try to grab me. Kiss me. Worse. But this?
It was safe to say that I’d never been bullied or made fun of because I couldn’t see enough. From experience, I knew that the best reaction was to not react. So I forced myself to keep breathing.
"I’ve seen enough. I know what’s to come, and I’m not the one who should be worried right now." I moved toward her. "Excuse me," I said keeping firm eye contact. "I’m leaving now."
She looked away and stepped back. "Bitch," she muttered as I walked past.
"Don’t worry. I’ve been called much more creative things." I could hear footsteps behind me, and took a deep breath in. From the scent, my cousins, Cosette, and Elsa were following me. I wasn’t sure what Shane and Daniel were up to, but I wasn’t turning around to find out.
"Well, that went just about as well as could be expected," Claudia said, breaking the silence when we were halfway to her house.
"It wasn’t so bad," I said.
"What do you mean?" Cosette said.
"Yeah, those people sucked, but did you notice the ones along the sidelines?"
"Beth, Tiffany, and Yvonne. Yes. I noticed," Raphael said.
"They’ll be in with us. So, that’s more than I had this morning. The rest seem like a total lost cause. I’m assuming most of the adults who disagreed with Luciana found a way to leave—like your parents, Mom, and Tia Rosa—and the rest here are complacent."
"Yes," Claudia said.
I blew out a breath. Well, it wasn’t a total waste. We’d learned some good stuff. Maybe not all of it was actually good good, but knowing was half the battle.
I texted Mom about getting more food and she promised to come by tomorrow with a truckload.
Until then, I needed to get a game plan. Those dreams were still haunting me. I needed to find out how to make sure none of my nightmares come to pass.