Free Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy, Book 3) by Brian Rowe Page B

eaten
much of anything, either. She didn’t look like the high school bombshell
anymore. She looked normal. As average as every other girl in this town.
    Tears welled up
in Charisma’s eyes. She placed her hands on her face, and she took a few steps
back.
    “I can’t…” she
started.
    The man rolled
down his window. “Did you need something, ma’am?”
    “I can’t just be normal !” Charisma shouted at the top
of her lungs, staring with intense hatred at the man in the car. “I’m Charisma
Kell—”
    Charisma didn’t
feel any pain when the gargantuan FedEx truck struck her frail body and sent
her flying in the air nearly two hundred feet.

 
 
    6.

 
    Liesel avoided most of the bad traffic by
taking side streets, and by the time we reached the I-5 Freeway, the congestion
had broken up almost completely.
    “What…” I started.
    “Hmm?”
    I just stared at her, having put off my
question for a good twenty minutes or so. I couldn’t hold back any longer.
    “Leese… what the hell was that?”
    “What?”
    “Those freakin’ karate moves! Duh !”
    “Oh.” She laughed as she pulled the
4Runner into the left hand lane of the freeway. “Did your wife impress you,
Cam?”
    “Impress me? It was amazing! Where did
you learn to do that?”
    “When we got back from Europe, I knew I
needed to learn some basic fighting skills, particularly since Hannah took all
my powers. A lot of mornings when you thought I was working at Uncle Tony’s?”
    “You were…”
    She nodded. “I was taking karate lessons
at this hole-in-the-wall in Wingfield Springs. It was just for a few weeks. So
I could defend myself.”
    “Defend yourself from an all-powerful
witch? What’s a drop kick gonna do when she pummels you five hundred feet in
the air by just a flick of her own hand?”
    Liesel smiled at that one, but quickly
re-focused her thoughts. “Cam, I didn’t train so much because I thought it
would help me defeat Hannah. It’s gonna take the
paint, and a whole lot of luck, to stop my sister. I trained to defend myself
against all the others who will try to keep us from getting to our
destination.”
    “Like who?”
    “Like… that security guard. And it’s only
going to get worse.”
    “What is?”
    “Have you put any thought into what’s
actually going to happen to us when everyone our age starts aging into their
forties and fifties, when we stay exactly the same? We’re going to be met with
opposition from here on in. Trust me. You’re going to be very happy I learned
some fighting moves.”
    I crossed my arms and stared forward for
a moment. “Leese… I know… but why didn’t you let me join you in the karate
classes?”
    “I didn’t want to have to tell you about
Hannah’s plan. Not until the last minute.”
    “Why?”
    “I wanted to give you a few more weeks of
peace, OK? I didn’t want you to worry.”
    I shook my head. “Well I’m not going to
be doing much worrying if I’m dead in the middle of a bloodbath, now am I?”
    “If there’s a bloodbath anywhere, I’ll
likely be dead, too. It’s not like our paintball guns will be able to fight off
anyone other than witches.”
    “There you go with the plural again. How
many witches are there, Leese?”
    “There’s… a lot,” Liesel said, passing
two trucks before pulling the car into the right hand lane. “I know of at least
three in California alone. There has to be many more out there, and Hannah is
bound to know of more. And it’s just like anything in life; some are good witches,
and some are bad witches.”
    “Like in The Wizard of Oz ?”
    “Yes, doofus. Like in The Wizard of Oz .”
    “You’re Glinda the Good Witch, and your
sister is Elphaba the Bad Witch.”
    “Elphaba?” Liesel asked, dumbfounded.
    “Nevermind. So what does this mean to
us?”
    “It means…” She took a deep breath,
turning her gaze away if she was holding onto a secret.
    “Leese… what is it?”
    “I wasn’t going to tell you this until