None of us wanted to do it, really. Lindsey's mother made us. Lindsey told everybody when she passed out invitations. "It's going to be a boy-girl party," she told us girls in undertones. "I'm not sure what that means. But my mom is awfully enthusiastic about it."

I told Lindsey sure, of course I'd come. She looked at me strangely. I guess after they drove me home from Angie's slumber party in tears the month before, she didn't expect me to want to go to any more parties. But I had bigger things on my mind.

Like Leah.

Leah was the new girl, pretty, exotic, and a little wild. There were all sorts of rumors about what she'd done with boys at her old school. I didn't believe the rumors, but I didn't stick up for her, either. Somebody else was at the bottom of the heap momentarily, and I took enough of a guilty pleasure from it not to intercede on Leah's behalf. It probably wouldn't have done her any good if I had. When you're the smart girl, everybody assumes you know nothing about "going out."

Besides, I had my own reasons to be wary of Leah.

I was on my way to the library a few days before Lindsey handed out the invitations to her party. On my way past the cafeteria, I saw Leah rooting around in one of the garbage cans, poking at it gingerly with a fork. I walked up behind her quietly. "What are you doing?"

She jumped, half-turning. "Oh, Brooke. Um, hi. You scared me."

"What are you doing?"

"I was hungry."

Yeah, right. With the way she turned up her nose as she poked that stuff? No way was she going to eat it. And if she'd been looking for a retainer or a ring or something, she would have said so. I folded my arms and looked deeply skeptical. "Try again."

She leaned towards me, lowering her voice. "Do you believe in magic?"

Living with my mother the witch made that like believing in air. Not that she bothered to teach me much of it. "Sure. Do you?"

"Yeah. I'm a wizard."

"Really."

"I can show you, if you want," she said. Her dark hair fell in a curtain around her face, and she brushed it back impatiently.

"What could you show me?"

"Well, this, for example." She poked at the trash. "Angie was eating a sandwich on rye bread. So if I can dig it up, I can get the spit off the places she bit into it. I can make her do stuff."

"That's gross."

"Yeah, but it's worth it. For little stuff. I mean, if I really wanted her to be, like, my slave or something, I'd need blood, or more spit, or sweat or something. But I have to stay in practice."

"Where'd you learn all this stuff?" I asked.

"My uncle. You don't believe me, do you?" Leah glared fiercely.

I stood my ground. "I believe you - I guess."

"Well, I'll prove it to you!"

She finally found the offending rye bread and picked the bitten edges off it, crumbling them and mashing them into her hands. She started muttering, much more rhythmically than my mom usually did, and drawing with the bread on her palm.

"What's that for?" I asked.

She stopped and frowned at me. "It's the way you cast a spell. Listen, if you want to see, you're going to have to keep quiet. Spells like this take a certain beat to them, you know, like a song or something, so if I get distracted, I'm going to have to start over again. And it'll take forever."

It took a long time anyway. The odd emphases were not at all lulling, so I felt every minute that we were standing there, waiting for the janitor or one of the lunch ladies to come out from the kitchen and catch us. Nobody did, and it didn't take quite ten minutes before Leah said, "There. It's done."

"So what now?" I asked.

"You'll see."

Sean came around the corner. "What are you guys doing?"

"Oh, just hanging around," I said. "I was on my way to the library, and I ran into Leah."

Leah surreptitiously wiped the bread off her palms behind her back, smiling winningly at Sean. He looked a little skeptical but smiled back. I squirmed inside. If there was anybody I'd want to tell about magic, it would have been Sean. Of course, that was impossible.

That afternoon, with an air of bewilderment, Angie did the hard half of Leah's math homework. She loaned Leah her favorite sparkly pencil and didn't even wince when Leah broke it. All the other girls watched them suspiciously. Leah kept shooting looks of triumph my way.

My mom is a good witch, on the Committee for the Ethical Use of Magic. Everybody at school thinks she's a nurse, though. Anyway, I told Mom what Leah had showed and told me, and she and my dad frowned at each other.

"I don't really have time for this, what with the Mirgaz sisters coming to trial this week," said Mom.

"Maybe this could be Brooke's project," Dad suggested.

Mom beamed at him - and me. "What a great idea! Keep a good, close eye on this girl, sweetie. Don't hesitate to call on me if she gets out of hand."

"Or anybody else on the Committee," said Dad.

"Oh, yes, of course," said Mom. "You know who to call."

I wanted to be proud of my first assignment -- especially since I might get to have more magic lessons if I did well with this. I tried to follow Leah without seeming like I was following her, and I paid closer attention to people who had been around her. And that's why I noticed that Angie still seemed like she was coming out of her daze two days later.

I cornered Leah at recess. "What did you do?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Leah. "It'll wear off any day now."

"Yeah, right," I said.

"It will!"

Leah looked a little scared, but a little proud of herself. I don't think it was supposed to be that strong a spell. She didn't really know what she was doing as much as she thought she did, and that was pretty scary. Scary enough that I totally forgot to be nervous about my first boy-girl party until I was actually in Lindsey's basement with about a dozen other people from school. I was surprised to see that Leah was invited, but Lindsey probably had instructions to be nice to the new girl. Then I counted the number of boys and the number of girls, and it all made sense. There were more boys Lindsey wanted to invite than girls. Of course. I sipped my Sprite and squirmed.

"Okay, okay," shouted Lindsey's mom, clapping her hands to get our attention. "Everybody sit down in a circle. You all know how this goes?"

None of us said we did. It was our first boy-girl party.

"You spin the bottle," said Lindsey's mom coyly. "If it lands on someone of the opposite sex - that's a boy if you're a girl, a girl if you're a boy - you kiss that person."

I was so glad she cleared up that "opposite sex" thing.

"If it lands on the same person three times -" She raised her eyebrows significantly. "-seven minutes in heaven."

"Or the laundry room," said Lindsey.

"The laundry room. Yes," said her mother, rolling her eyes. "So we sit down boy, girl, boy, girl. Everybody ready?"

She handed Lindsey an old glass bottle. We all squirmed nervously. I was sitting between Jason and Paul Z. I didn't want to kiss either of them. In fact, I didn't really want to kiss anybody just then. I would have claimed I had a headache and gone home if it hadn't been for Leah.

Leah lounged there on the orange shag rug, sophisticated and bored. If anyone had played this game before, it would be Leah. I hugged my knees and watched Lindsey spin.

She didn't seem to be able to get up the courage to kiss Michael. She kept darting little glances at her mother. Michael didn't look too thrilled at the prospect either.

"Mom, can you, um, go get some more sodas or something?" said Lindsey, licking her lips.

"I don't think so, young lady. I'm not leaving you kids without a chaperone!"

Somehow I hadn't thought Lindsey's mom would be the kind of evil spirit I'd encounter if I followed in Mom's footsteps.

Lindsey managed to kiss Michael, an awkward, bumpy little peck. Then Sean took his turn. Sean and I had been buddies always. I wouldn't have minded if Sean had spun me, but I knew he had a thing for pretty, perky little Katie.

The spin came up Leah. She smiled and wiggled up to kiss him. She was clearly aiming for a full lip-lock, but Sean dodged at the last second and hit the corner of her parted lips. She sat back down, trying not to look disappointed. Katie and Lindsey smirked at each other.

I wondered how much of this I could bear. Maybe there was something I could do to take Leah out of the running. I didn't see what, though. Mom hadn't really taught me much in the way of spells. Steph's spin came up Lindsey, so I was spared having to monitor saliva levels for one turn at least. With the next turn, Brett spun Leah.

Okay, I told myself. No problem. It just happened that way. Could have been anybody. Random chance.

Leah looked like a cat with a dish of fresh cream. Random chance, my butt.

"Mrs. Daelman, can I use your phone?" I said. "I have something to ask my mom."

"Advice, probably," muttered Paul K. Angie glared at him. So Leah was still the designated scapegoat among the girls. Great.

Nobody answered. Fantastic. So I had to figure out how she was doing it and stop her, all by myself. I left a message that there was an emergency and she should call or preferably come to get me.

When I got back to the basement, all the boys were squirming, and all the girls were glaring at Leah. Paul Z. had his hand on the bottle, and I was next. I picked up a glass of water from the snack table and sat down. I dipped my finger in the water and touched each of my eyelids, then subvocalized the incantation for magic-sight. It was one of the few spells I knew, but it would at least help me know see how she was doing it. Paul Z. was spinning when my magic-sight came on.

And there it was. She couldn't have been more obvious, if someone like me could sense it with elementary witchery. In her pocket was a little blue cylinder, shining like she'd stuck an LED in her pants. Only to me, of course. It pulsed when Paul Z. spun.

Of course, the spin landed on Leah. What a cheater.

I couldn't believe she was that obvious, but she looked serene. Probably didn't think there was any way she could get caught. I wasn't sure she could. Mom hadn't taught me very many spells, and most of them required some physical components I didn't have. Paul Z. got her square on the mouth, but nothing too deep.

It was my turn. I tried not to watch Leah, but the flash was bright enough that I could see it out of the corner of my eye.

It landed on Casey.

I glanced at Leah, and she gave me a conspiratorial little grin. She was trying to bribe me. With Casey. Scatterbrained Casey, who always needed his hair combed just a little. Not the bottom of the social pile - but certainly not one of the best picks. Not the cutest, not the most popular, not the smartest. Just adequate.

What a dork she was.

Casey and I barely touched each other. He looked embarrassed, and I was just plain furious at condescending, conniving Leah. If only I could just tell everybody she was an evil sorceress in training - but nobody would believe me. They'd all laugh at me, and besides, I wasn't supposed to tell them about magic anyway.

Okay, so nobody really seemed willing to get too physical with Leah in front of everybody else. She wasn't going to be able to get enough spit to do any harm unless she got to do Seven Minutes in Heaven with them. The boys had all spun Leah, so it was a question of who she would spin.

Of course, it was Sean. Before I saw that she'd picked out Sean, I was actually thinking of just letting it go, letting her do her thing and telling Mom about it later. But it was Sean. I couldn't do that.

I guess I was surprised that the others weren't objecting to Leah always getting kissed, but they probably couldn't think of any way she could have rigged it. I mean, they were doing the spinning themselves. I sat through the rest of them until it was Sean again, and of course, Leah got what she wanted.

"Oooh," said Lindsey's mom, "Seven Minutes in Heaven. All right, kids. Have fun." Sean cast Katie a despairing look. Practically everyone was watching Katie as Sean and Leah stood up. Until they figured out that Sean maybe had it worse.

A lot of people don't remember what it's like for the smart girl. Smart girls are supposed to be like nuns. A smart girl making a dirty joke is worse than somebody's mom doing it. There are a small number of boys you're allowed to have a crush on, usually: one or two smart boys, if they're not too cute, and then the boy that everybody says is "really nice," which translates as "totally asexual," or possibly "gay." Other than that, you'd better stay in your own league.

Also, smart girls are not allowed to be in charge of much of anything. We get told this a lot: "You're not the boss of me just because you think you're so smart." So I looked to Lindsey and Angie. I was used to looking to Lindsey and Angie to figure out the appropriate thing to do in social situations.

They were just watching Leah and Sean head for the laundry room. They kept glancing at Katie, who had murder in her eyes. Katie did nothing.

Everybody else there had something to lose - and I did, too, but it wasn't so much as theirs, I guess, or maybe I just knew there was more at stake. The door closed behind them. I rummaged in my pocket for something weird looking and took a deep breath.

"Cheater!" I shrieked. I dove for the bottle.

"Brooke, what on earth is wrong with you?" asked Lindsey's mom.

"Leah is cheating, Mrs. Daelman. I only saw it just now." I held out the little bits of wire I'd been messing with in my dad's workshop before I came to the party. "These were in the bottle. She's got something in her pocket - a little electromagnet, I bet - to pull the bottle around to point to her all the time."

I waited, holding my breath. I didn't think they knew enough about electromagnets to call me on how stupid it sounded. The only one who might was Sean, I hoped. I was right.

"Well," said Lindsey's mom, letting out a little breath, "it does seem highly unlikely that she would get spun every time."

I jumped up and ran over to the laundry room door. "Leah!" I banged on it a couple of times. "Leah, come out of there, we know you're a cheater. Leah!"

There was no answer.

"Leah, we'd like to talk to you about a certain little object," said Lindsey's mom. She tried the door. It was locked.

Still no answer.

"I'm going to give you the count of three to come out of there!"

Of course, no Leah emerged at three.

Katie started to cry.

Lindsey's mom said, "That's it. I'm going to go get a bobby pin and pick that lock. This is nonsense." She charged up the stairs.

Which still gave Leah a bunch of time alone with Sean. I went through the spells I knew: witch-sight, ignore-this, and take-me-home were the only ones I could perform on the spot, and none of them sounded useful.

I banged on the door again. Then again. I tried to make it as random as possible, to break her concentration. "Cheater, cheater!" I yelled. "Cheater!"

Everyone else stared at me like I had lost my mind, and I knew what little social acceptance Leah's arrival had granted me was going to be gone, evaporated completely. Even though I was saving one of them from the crazy girl, nobody would thank me for behaving in such an inexcusably weird manner.

Lindsey's mom returned with a bobby pin and jerked the door open. Leah was pushed forward as the door opened; Sean darted around her and rejoined the other guys, who had clumped up near the snack table. "She leaned against the door and wouldn't let me get out when you called," he said breathlessly. "It was… she was really weird."

Lindsey's mom dragged Leah out of the laundry room. "All right, young lady, show us what's in your pockets." Reluctantly, Leah pulled out the talisman; I pounced on it.

"Yep, it's an electro-magnet," I announced. "Just like I thought. That's how she was doing it."

Sean looked at me strangely but said nothing. In fact, nobody said anything. They just kept looking at me and looking at Leah. Katie sniffled a little, but she finally stopped crying.

The doorbell rang. Lindsey's dad appeared a few seconds later at the top of the stairs with my mom in tow. "Brooke, you're going to need to come home, sweetie," said my mom. "Hi, guys. Sorry to break up your party, but we've had a family emergency."

"I hope it's nothing too serious," said Lindsey's mom.

"Well, Brooke's aunt is sick, and we need to go out of town to help take care of her."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Lindsey's mom took a deep breath. "Don't worry about breaking up the party, anyway. We had just had a little problem with someone who thinks the rules are for other people." She glared at Leah.

"Oh, this must be Leah," said my mom. "I know everyone else, but I don't think I've met you."

"Hi," muttered Leah.

"Well, she won't be invited back again, I'll tell you that!" said Lindsey's mom. "Ruining the fun for the other kids. I was thinking of calling her parents."

Leah scowled defiantly.

My mom clucked her tongue. "Well, that's a real shame. I can drive her home myself if you want."

"Would you mind?"

"Oh, no. I'm sure it's not too far out of the way, and then you can get back to your party."

"That would be lovely," breathed Lindsey's mom. "Thank you so much."

I said good-bye to everybody and got in the car with my mom and the cranky, unrepentant Leah.

"So what did you do?" my mom asked as she was starting up the car. "How much do we have to do damage control? It didn't look bad at all."

"I found the charm and told them she was using a little electromagnet," I said. "And then I banged on the door to disrupt the rhythm of her spell. Everybody thinks I'm crazy now, but I didn't say a word about magic."

"Oh, good job. I'm really proud of you, Brooke. That was quick thinking."

I smiled to myself.

"You're witches?" said Leah.

"Of course," said my mother. "Don't be ridiculous. How else would we have known to stop you? You can see my CEUM badge if you like."

"Oh, God," moaned Leah. "Meddling witches."

"As for you, young lady…." My mom pulled over and shut off the headlights. She turned around and thrust her hands over the seat. "Give me your hands."

"No," said Leah.

"Look, kid. You don't want me to get nasty with you. I promise you don't. They teach us spells that make your little blood magic look like a walk in the park, all for people like you. But you're young, you're just starting out, and Leah said you've been learning from your uncle. So I'm inclined to go easy on you if you let me. But I don't have to. So. Give me your hands."

Leah stuck out her hands, and Mom enveloped them with hers. "Listen to this spell, Brooke," she said. "It'll come in handy."

Mom almost never taught me new spells, so I listened carefully to the words, about the sun and moon and rain and stars and some other things I'd only just learned about. Then she released Leah's hands. "It's called Instant Karma," she said. "Like the John Lennon song."

Leah, scowling, said nothing, so I asked the obvious question: "What does it do?"

"Whatever she does," said Mom. "If she does a healing spell, she'll feel herself getting a little healthier - her cold will go away, or headaches or warts or whatever. But if she tries any more of that control shit - pfft. She's toast, totally suggestible. Self-defense stuff is okay, as long as it's not offensive, so she should be able to deal with that uncle of hers if he gets nasty."

She turned back to Leah. "You don't know any good spells, do you, honey? Just the blood magic."

Leah turned her head away, staring out the window like the neighborhood was fascinating.

"Whatever," said my mom. "But, you know, if you feel like learning something better, Brooke's going to be taking some more lessons, so you can join in if you want."

I felt a warm feeling spreading in my chest, almost making up for the tightness of the day. Magic lessons! It was about time.

Katie came up to me on the playground Monday before school. I stuck a finger in my book and looked down at her. "Hi."

"Hi, Brooke. Listen, I just wanted to say thanks for Saturday. The rest of us wouldn't have been smart enough to catch what Leah was doing."

"No problem," I said. "It was just wrong, y'know?"

"Yeah. Well, thanks. Sean wanted to say thanks, too, but he didn't want you to think…."

"He didn't want me to think he was too grateful," I said. "Don't worry, Katie. I know you and Sean have a special thing going." That will last about a week and a half, I thought, but I didn't say it out loud. Instead, I forced myself to look across the playground and smile at Sean.

My friends can't even talk to me for fear I'll think it's true love. It's a good thing I'm getting magic lessons, because junior high is going to suck.

The End

Story copyright Marissa K. Lingen, published by the Fortean Bureau
http://www.forteanbureau.com