Free Halloween Magic and Mayhem by Stella Wilkinson

Chapter One
    How on earth did I end up here? I was supposed to be at a party kissing the boy of my dreams, instead I’m dancing naked on the town common, on Halloween, with a Coven of strange women who might be witches, a bunch of zombies that I have to return to their graves, a talking crow, and my pet ghost thrown in for good measure. Just yesterday I was an ordinary teenager…
     
    One day earlier…
    I left school on Friday, thrilled to be free for the weekend. My best friends, Bryony and Kate, were discussing what costumes to wear to Tamsin Warner’s Halloween party tomorrow night, and I was super excited too.
    Tamsin seemed to have invited everyone in our year, not to mention a few kids from the other school in town, one of whom was Sean Carrey.
    I had been in the local shopping centre a few weeks ago with my mates, when a bunch of boys started showing off in front of us on their skateboards. One, in particular, had caught my attention. He had brown hair with a floppy fringe that he kept flicking off his face, big brown eyes, and a killer smile. He knew he was cute. What had amazed me most about him is that he seemed to think I was cute too. Despite being surrounded by some quite pretty female friends, he kept smiling at me. Me. Plain, boring Emily Rand.
    The only interesting thing about me is maybe my hair. It’s long and dark. But my eyes are dishwater grey, I think my lips are too thin and my nose is too big. My dad keeps telling me I’m going to ‘be a great beauty some day’, just like my mother was, but I think that day is quite a long way off right now. Plus, my dad is biased.
    Anyway, this boy kept looking over, and my friends all noticed and started nudging me. I was embarrassed but secretly delighted. Despite being nearly sixteen I haven’t had much attention from boys, and this one was perfect for being my first serious crush. He didn’t go to our school, which was a major plus point. I’ve known all the boys in my school since we were five and clearly remember the phase where they all thought it was hilariously funny to wipe snot on my back; not to mention that time I spent the night at Kate’s house and my spare knickers fell out of my bag onto the classroom floor and all the boys threw them back and forth whilst I howled in the toilets and refused to come out for three hours.
    This boy had not been part of any of that; he was a mystery, without any childish past, and did I mention he was cute?
    After about twenty minutes his friends got chatting to my friends and so naturally we talked a bit. His name was Sean Carrey, he went to Fairgreen School on the other side of town, he was sixteen, and he liked pizza and he loved the Alien movies. That was about all I learned. His mates wanted to push off and he gave me a “See you around Emily.” Then I never saw him again.
    I kept hoping to run into him, despite being really nervous about doing so. I made my friends go back to the shopping centre every Saturday after, but we never saw them again.
    Then last Monday Tamsin invited us to her party, and she mentioned that some of her friends were coming from Fairgreen. I didn’t want to ask her about Sean, but I didn’t have to, it turned out he had already asked Tamsin about me.
    She was almost green with envy as she told me that Sean had specifically asked her if I was going to be there.
    I blushed a lot, but it was a happy blush. He had remembered my name, and he told Tamsin to tell me that he was looking forward to seeing me at the party.
    I was terrified that he might not like me, and just as terrified that he might. I had no idea how to talk to a boy I liked. Was I supposed to flirt with him and pretend to be confident? Most likely I would sit in a corner and hope he came and talked to me. I just hoped I wouldn’t totally humiliate myself by being totally unable to say anything remotely intelligent. But it didn’t matter, at long last there was a boy who liked me and I was going to see him at the