Free The Trouble With Spells by Lacey Weatherford

him in any of the halls between classes either, but that
didn’t mean he wasn’t here. We just didn’t have any classes close together.
    I finally decided
to try to find him, trying to tell myself I was just checking on him to see if
he was okay. I wasn’t quite ready to admit I needed to see him to make myself
feel better.
    I went into the
front office between classes and stood at the counter giving a sigh of relief
when I saw Mrs. Parker was working today. She liked me, and I’d earned a few
brownie points with her after helping her with a school project recently.
    “Hi, Portia! Can I
help you with something?” she asked, looking up at me from her desk with a
smile.
    “I hope so,” I
said, smiling sweetly. “My friend brought my books to school for me in his
backpack this morning, and I accidentally left my assignment for next period in
there. I was wondering if you could tell me what his next class is so I can go
get it? I can’t find him, and I don’t want Mr. Perkins to drop my grade because
it’s late.”
    “Sure, no
problem,” Mrs. Parker said, turning to the computer at her desk. “What’s your
friend’s name?”
    “Vance Mangum,” I
said, trying to seem casual about it.
    Mrs. Parker smiled
while she tapped his name into the computer.
    “I wasn’t aware
you knew Vance,” she said casually. “He’s a cute kid. I’ve worried that he was
a loner. Glad to hear he’s making some friends.”
    “He’s a nice guy.”
My heart was beating rapidly at my charade.
    “Hmmm … I’m not
finding him,” she said, staring at her computer with a frown, and I suddenly
had visions of him fleeing into the night without a trace, his evil father
chasing after him. “Oh, wait! Here he is! I forgot we had to transfer him into
a new class this morning.”
    “A new class?” Had
something happened to him after all?
    “Yes,” she
answered while she wrote some information on a piece of paper. “We just
realized his transcript didn’t have enough of the required physical education
courses on it for him to graduate this year. We had to drop him from one of his
electives and put him in P.E. instead.”
    “So he’s in P.E.
now?”
    “Yes, he should
be.” She stood and came over to the counter. “They’re out on the baseball field
today, though, which will make you late for your class, so I wrote a note to
excuse your tardy too.” She handed me a slip of paper.
    I flashed a warm
smile at her. “Thanks so much, Mrs. Parker! I appreciate your help!”
    “Any time,” she
replied with a grin.
    I quickly left the
office and began making my way across the campus, down toward the baseball
field. As I approached, it occurred to me that I didn’t want anyone to see me
since I didn’t actually have a real excuse to be there, so I snuck stealthily
up behind one of the dugouts. I peered around the corner and began looking
through the uniform-clad boys who were out on the field, but I didn’t see Vance
anywhere.
    I saw Shelly’s
boyfriend, Brad, standing in front of the dugout with a group of guys, but
Vance wasn’t there either. I was about to give up and walk away when I caught
one of their voices.
    “Dude, he didn’t
even dress out,” the guy said, and I recognized him as Kurt, Brad’s friend.
    I followed their
gazes up the hill and saw Vance approaching. Massive relief flooded my heart
and I found myself releasing a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. I
continued to watch Vance walk onto the field over to the coach, handing him a
slip of paper.
     “Coach isn’t even
saying anything about it,” Kurt continued to complain.
    “Maybe he hasn’t
had time to buy any from the bookstore yet,” Brad replied with a shrug.
    “I’m just sick of
listening to all the girls rave about him,” a guy named Jeff piped up. “I went
to see Sara after school yesterday, and she went on and on about him like he
was God’s gift to women. I finally just left and told her to go date him
instead. I don’t see